


Inferno Dynamics

by m_gilastorm, miranda_gilastorm (m_gilastorm)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Slow Burn, Team Dynamics, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-03-03 12:31:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13341327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_gilastorm/pseuds/m_gilastorm, https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_gilastorm/pseuds/miranda_gilastorm
Summary: What if Team Bus had made contact with Robbie Reyes back in Season 1? What if Robbie had been part of the team for the whole ride?





	1. First Contact

**Author's Note:**

> I already hate myself for doing this, feel free to suffer with me :)

* * *

 

Skye and Fitzsimmons lounged, waiting for the repair crew to finish with the hole they'd put in the Bus. Fitz nursed his beer, still moping about the loss of his fish tank. Simmons patted him on the shoulder, while Skye flung herself down on the cushioned bench groaning. Every muscle in her upper body was screaming.

"If I _ever_ have to do another pull up again, it will be _way_ too soon." Jemma gave her that sad, sympathetic smile and patted her on the knee the same way she had comforted Fitz. Excited voices drifted up to them from the spiral staircase down to the ramp and lab. Or, an excited voice drifted up toward them, while May's annoyed voice was unmistakable.

"Let someone else take the mission, Phil."

"Are you kidding? This is a perfect mission for us. You don't have to run it, just get us to LA." Coulson and May stopped at the top of the stairs, and it was clear May was having none of this discussion.

"I don't do first contact missions."

"May, you're not leaving the Bus. Ward will be on threat assessment, I'll go in as the welcoming committee, and I'll take Skye as part of her first hands-on field agent training and as a friendly face. Just fly us to East LA, that's all I'm asking." Skye could feel the fury radiating off of May from the bench she was lounging on. Fitz and Simmons stared nervously toward the two older agents.

"Good, because that's all you'll get." May stalked past the three younger agents who watched their brief argument from their places on the benches near the bar, slamming her way into the cockpit. Coulson looked at Fitzsimmons and Skye, rocking on his heels a little.

"That went better than expected. We leave as soon as the repair crew disembarks. Be ready for a rough one." He shot them a half-smile and walked off toward his office, to do paperwork or something equally as boring, Skye assumed. She turned to see Fitz and Simmons getting up and chattering about science-y things they would need for a first contact mission. Skye smiled awkwardly, debating whether or not to insert herself into their banter. Steps up the staircase pulled her attention as her new SO jogged up to the lounge area.

"The repair crew is finished downstairs. Your lab is cleared for your use again. Apparently, we're not allowed to ram anymore vehicles through the doors, though." Jemma smiled and made some sort of adorable squeaking noise. Fitz just looked at Ward, offended.

"Yeah. Obviously." The two scientists rushed down the stairs, both making idle threats about what would happen if things weren't back _exactly_ where the repair crew found them. Ward sat on the bench across from where Skye was still stretched out, clearly still sore from her morning 'training' (more like torture). She glared over at her SO and decided he was waiting for her whining, so she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"So what exactly is a 'first contact mission'? I heard May and AC talking about it, saying we're on our way to East LA for one. May was even less thrilled than usual." Ward glanced over his shoulder toward the cockpit with what might have been a curious look on his face.

"First contact is exactly what it sounds like. You go in and make first contact with a powered individual. Generally, it's two man teams, one for threat assessment, and one for welcoming, with a back up team in case things get messy."

Skye pursed her lips and nodded. "So Mike Peterson was a first contact mission."

"Not exactly. Our priority was to contain the Rising Tide threat to our security." Ward inclined his head toward her. She cocked her head, smiling.

"Aww, it's so cute how you think you guys can contain me." He raised his brows at her, jaw slack as if he were about to say something when May's voice could be heard over the intercom system.

 _"Wheels up in five. Lock it or lose it."_ Ward planted his hands on the table between them, pushing his way up to standing.

"Guess that's our cue. See you at the briefing. Don't forget to report for your afternoon training session." Skye collapsed back onto the bench again, groaning before she also pushed herself to her feet, feeling her entire body protest after the morning training. Her SO had disappeared to wherever he went for take off. She ducked into her bunk and played with her dash ornament from her old van, recalling bitterly that she never had to do pull ups when she lived in her van.

Once they were up in the air, Coulson gathered them for their mission briefing. Like Skye and Fitzsimmons had overheard, the plan was still to have Ward on threat assessment and for Coulson and Skye to go in as the welcoming committee. May didn't join them, she noticed. She thought she caught Ward glancing toward the hall that led toward the cockpit more than once. He definitely noticed as well. Skye wondered what that meant. Spies were hard to read.

"Alright," Coulson tapped on the touch console, pulling up the information on their next mission. Somehow it felt like Skye's first official mission. "Here's what we know. Some kind of pyrokinetic individual has taken it upon themselves to rid the streets of LA of a local gang." Pictures of a blurry figure with flames around them, carrying a flaming chain and a gorgeous old Charger with licks of fire spilling over from the engine and in the wake of the tires filled the screen.

Skye eyed the blurry images with open-mouthed interest. "Is this all we have to go on? Because those are _terrible_ pictures." Ward glared at her and she simply raised her brow with a silent 'oh-kay', before settling on her elbows on the flat, screened console she was leaning on.

"What information do we have that confirms pyrokinetic abilities, sir?" Jemma piped up, stepping toward the large screens that covered the wall before them.

"Simmons, the car's on fire. He's on fire. He's using flaming weapons. I'd say pyrokinesis is a safe bet." Simmons _hmph_ ed and stayed near the screen, evaluating the images while Fitz considered the prospect, tossing his head from side to side, then nodding with an exaggerated frown. Skye lifted a hand, catching their attention.

"Sorry. Yeah, hey, high school drop out," she pointed to herself. "What's pyrokinetic, or whatever you called it?"

"Pyrokinesis," Fitzsimmons corrected in unison, not even moving to look at her or each other.

Ward turned to her. "The ability to psychically control and manipulate fire. Sir, this seems like a serious threat."

"And based on these images, we think his extends to setting objects on fire as well," Coulson added, gesturing to the screen again. "And I don't disagree with you, Ward. He does seem like a sincere threat. But protocol dictates first contact, so that's what we're going to do. We'll play it like we did with Mike Peterson. I want you set up with the rifle Fitzsimmons designed in case things don't go our way, while Skye and I try a friendlier approach."

Skye pulled out her phone, typing in lines of code that would get her through the encryption to her own system. Los Angeles, they said. There was no way something like this went completely unnoticed. In the background, she could hear Fitzsimmons chattering about cellular something or other that would allow for the manipulation of flame and Coulson and Ward were back to debating whether or not it was worth it to actually even try to talk to this powered person. Her code broke through to the dark web to search for the chat rooms where these kinds of things were usually discussed. Sure enough, there were a few boards dedicated to the Rider and sightings. One person swore he'd seen the same Charger during the day at some mechanic's shop over on the east side. No credible evidence, none of the other posters agreed. She pulled up the shop anyway, checking out the employees and their backgrounds. One had a questionable medical history.

"If you guys are done fighting about whether this is a good idea or not, I think I found him."


	2. Devil of LA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team makes first contact with Robbie Reyes. And, as everyone is starting to get used to, Skye does things her own way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This meeting takes place after S1E2 084, but before S1E3 The Asset. Just so you have an idea of where the team sits in canon :)

* * *

 

Skye had never been more grateful to be a hacker, bundled up in her bunk with her laptop as they were nearing Los Angeles. AC had excused her from the _torture_ that Ward called training to continue her digging on Roberto Reyes. Reyes' parents were both dead, his uncle was incarcerated, leaving him as caretaker to his wheelchair-bound brother, Gabe. His uncle, Eli, had a '69 Charger registered to him that matched the one in the photos, minus the flames, of course. He matched. He was working in an auto and body shop over in East LA called Canelo's, had lived in the area his whole life, dropped out to take care of his brother when their uncle was arrested. And there was the matter of that medical file. It looked like the crash that paralyzed his brother and should have killed him was caused by a gang shooting. He had motive.

Skye's fingers tapped furiously away at her laptop's keys, her eyes flicking back and forth, deciphering the code her screen flashed at her. His old high school ID picture showed a pretty cute face, if a bit too serious. Coulson's stern agent-dad thing might work better than her flirty approach, just from what she was seeing. No red flags that screamed dangerous or violent popped up at her, though, and she hoped that Ward had been wrong. It seemed, for all intents and purposes, like this kid was just protecting his brother and maybe his neighborhood.

"Skye!" Jemma's cheery voice almost made her jump out of her skin.

"Jesus, Simmons! You scared me half to death!" Skye stopped typing to run a hand through her hair. Simmons scrunched up her nose in apology.

"So sorry! I just wanted to see how the research was going. Have you found anything that might indicate how he got his pyrokinetic abilities?" Skye shook her head.

"No, but I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint _when_. There was a gang shooting that paralyzed his brother and should have killed him, based on the reported injuries, but then he just," Skye waved her hands in front of her, "got better and walked away." Simmons scoffed.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable scientific explanation." Skye saw a perfect opportunity, raising her brows and smirking.

"Well, you know, the locals have been calling him some kind of ghost driver." The squeak Jemma uttered was absolutely satisfying. "I wouldn't be surprised if some of his abilities are from his time on the 'other side.'" She smirked, chewing on her tongue as she bent her fingers in a quoting motion. Simmons clucked, crossing her arms and realizing Skye was playing with her.

"Really, Skye. Do you think I would be so gullible as to believe any of that story?"

"Not a story. They really do call him the Ghost Rider or something like that. It's all over the message boards. I can track his sightings and victims through those alone." Before Skye could hear May's voice came through over the speakers again.

_Beginning our descent. Strap in._

Simmons left her small bunk to go prep for landing. Skye encoded her file on Reyes, sending it to her phone, and snapped her laptop shut, stowing it in one of the drawers beneath her bed. She checked her go-bag again, making sure she still had everything Ward had told her to bring for her first mission as a Shield-agent-in-training. The Bus shuddered as it made contact with the ground. As soon as the coasting came to a stop, she grabbed her bag and made her way to meet the rest of the team. Fitzsimmons were fussing over their rifle while Ward hovered close to the weapon. Coulson walked up to stand next to her.

"You ready?"

"For what? To finally see what you mean by the craziest show on earth?" She grinned.

"Something like that." He turned to the scientists and her SO. "You ready to move out?" Fitzsimmons stopped their bickering instantly.

"Of course, sir." Simmons smiled in response.

"Yeah, good." Fitz jerked his hands away from the rifle.

Ward stepped forward to grab it, lifting it as if testing it out before dismantling it with practiced ease and sliding the pieces into the bag that was waiting at his feet. "All good to go, sir."

Coulson gave them all a thin smile and motioned to their SUV. "Let's do this, then."

 *         *         *

Skye was really wishing for her van right about now. The big black SUV was  _way_ too noticeable in a neighborhood like Hillrock Heights, and the SHIELD logos on the doors made it worse. Fitzsimmons were bickering about whether or not to send the dwarfs with Coulson and herself to take readings, Ward was glowering, and Coulson was just following the on-board GPS. They were close.

"Hey, AC, maybe don't park too close? This thing is going to attract the wrong kind of attention in this neighborhood." She leaned forward to rest her arms on the console between Ward and Coulson. "And I'm pretty sure a high school dropout with superpowers from East LA that fights street crime in his spare time isn't going to like SHIELD showing up at his day job."

Coulson's eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror, glancing at her, considering. "You're probably right. Besides, Ward will need to find a spot at a good distance to set up. You and I can walk a block or two to the shop." Skye grinned and settled back in her seat, pleased with herself. They didn't have much farther to go before Coulson pulled the vehicle into an empty lot a couple blocks away from Canelo's shop.

Ward shouldered his bag, pulling her aside. "Remember to follow Coulson's lead, observe what he does, and," he glared at her somewhat insincerely, "try not to pull any stunts."

Skye gave him a sweet smile, cocking her head to the side. "Observe, follow AC's lead, no stunts. Got it." He sighed, and she gave him a playful punch in the arm. "Hey, I promise I won't cause any trouble that my SO can't handle, okay?"

Ward huffed out a laugh, nodding slightly. "That's what I'm afraid of." She smiled at him again, bouncing a little as she moved back to join Coulson, who was still explaining to Fitzsimmons why bringing their drones with them to a first contact was a  _bad idea_. The scientists settled back into the van, prepping their comm system, as the rest of the team set off to their own destinations.

Coulson gave Skye a small sideways glance. "Think you're ready for this?"

Skye gave him a bright smile, tossing her hair. "I mean, we blew a hole in the Bus, pulled a World War II radioactive weapon out of a pyramid in the middle of the jungle in South America. I was taken hostage last week and I'm pretty sure we all got yelled at by the actual director of SHIELD, and that's  _after_ we saved Mike Peterson from exploding and destroying Grand Central Station and killing everyone in it. I think dealing with volatile situations is officially in my wheelhouse."

"It has been quite a few weeks, hasn't it?"

"That's what you promised." Skye glanced around the rundown street they were walking down. She spotted the shop they were looking for. "There. That's the place. Canelo's Auto and Body. "

"Okay, good. Remember, just follow my lead. We don't want to spook him or start a scene if we don't have to."

"Whatever you say, AC. I'm just here to observe." Skye pressed her lips together in a taunt expression, raising her brows, clearly not pleased with being treated like a child. She followed him through the gate into the large yard that surrounded the shop. It was mid-afternoon, so the LA sun beat down on them without mercy. Coulson strode purposefully the rest of the way to the shop.

"Excuse me? I'm looking for a Mr. Canelo?" They stopped just outside the large garage entrance, still in full view of wherever Ward would have set up with Fitzsimmons' rifle. Coulson shielded his eyes against the sun in an exaggerated gesture, making as if he couldn't see inside the shop. "Is anyone here?"

"Sí, someone's here. But the boss is out today and everyone else is on lunch. You'll have to come back later." Skye leaned around Coulson to see the speaker. The gruff accented voice sounded even more grouchy than May's, and that took skill. She glanced up at AC, considering for a second letting him handle it.  _Nah._

He glowered slightly as she stepped around him, smiling her brightest smile, bouncing as she made her way to the car the speaker was hidden under the hood of. "Well, maybe you can help us for now."

_"Damn it, Skye"_

_"Oh dear."_

_"Here goes."_

She could hear Ward, Simmons, and Fitz respectively in her comm as she leaned on the car and, as she expected, Robbie Reyes was the one under the hood, elbows deep in the engine and barely giving her a glance. "See, my dad over there has this  _amazing_ restored '62 Corvette, and we need a part for it. And, well, I heard through these message boards that sometimes you guys do work on sweet vintage cars, so I was hoping," Skye tossed her hair, dragging out the word, "we'd get lucky and you could help us out." She bit her lip and gave him a pouting face, playing up the I-know-I'm-pretty thing as far as it would take her.

" _Did she just call Agent Coulson 'dad'?"_

_"Hush, Fitz, not helping!"_

Reyes straightened up, wiping his hands on a filthy rag that had been sitting on the car next to him while he glared at her with narrowed eyes. Very attractive brown eyes, Skye couldn't help but notice. The picture in her file didn't do him justice. It must have been at least a couple of years old, probably from when he was still in high school. His face had filled out and the dusting of freckles was adorable, his jaw was more square, and his whole frame was definitely more full in his work uniform. She smiled again, offering her hand.

"Skye."

He didn't shake her hand, but gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement. "Robbie."

Skye rolled her eyes at him, making a show of withdrawing her hand. "So does this mean you'll help us?"

He shook his head at her, clenching his jaw slightly. "I doubt we have parts for a '62 Vette, but I'll be damned if I'm not willing to at least take a look." A ghost of a smirk crossed his face as he shrugged, trying to act disinterested. "Not every day someone wanders in with a classic car like that." Skye beamed at him. She turned to Coulson, who was watching her closely from the entrance and probably not pleased with her using Lola as a ruse, or really any of her interference.  _Oh well._ It seemed to be going well so far.

"Dad here doesn't like to drive her out on the street often, so she's back in a trailer hooked to the SUV with some of my friends. I can go get it, unless you'd rather go back with me." She still had the mission in mind. She just had to get him out in the open. Ward just needed a clean shot.

_"I have a clear view of the whole yard, Skye. You just need him out of the building."_

_"But if he's coming willingly, do we really have to resort to violence?"_

_"Simmons, he's killed dozens of gang members. Do you really want him conscious in the vehicle with you?"_

_"I suppose you have a point."_

Robbie's attention jerked toward her. "You shouldn't leave something as nice as that parked around, in a trailer or not. The gangs around here don't care who you are or who they hurt, just their next score."

Skye's brows shot up. She regarded him curiously, debating how to keep playing her role. She glanced over at Coulson quickly, turning back to Reyes. "Well then I guess you're coming with me to get Lola. Probably shouldn't have left my friends over there by themselves." She leaned toward him conspiratorially. "And I might need protecting, right?" She flashed him a smile again, but he just watched her with those same intense eyes.

"Whatever,  _chica_. Let's go take a look at this car." Skye shrugged and turned, bouncing a little as she made her way back to the entrance and Coulson.

The older agent glared at her. "You know, Skye, I don't normally let anyone touch Lola. I thought we were just getting a part."

"Oh come on, dad. They're supposed to be the best!" She hopped out of the cool of the shop back into the blaring light of the California sun. She was glad she'd decided to wear her tank top and shorts.

Coulson followed her somewhat reluctantly with Robbie glaring at them both from a distance behind. "I guess he did fix up that Charger pretty nice."

Skye turned to Robbie, who was still inconveniently hidden in the shadow of the shop. "See? He even agreed. That never happens! He's usually such a stickler about the rules." She rolled her eyes dramatically while taking a couple of large steps backwards, making it clear she was ready to head out of the yard. "You coming or are you going to make poor, defenseless me walk to my SUV by myself?" She smirked at the shadows of the garage, knowing that was where the mechanic was.

Robbie stepped out to the edge, just barely into the sunlight enough for Skye to see him. "Maybe your pops here should go with you," he eyed Coulson suspiciously, and she suddenly felt like she was the one being played, "besides, someone should stay and watch the shop."

Ward was in her ear, voicing her own thoughts. " _Shit, you've been made. Get him in the open now, sir. "_

Staying in the role of her dad, AC turned to her. "I might be a bit more comfortable with that, anyways, sweetheart." Coulson moved out to stand more toward the middle of the yard with Skye, where she was rolling her eyes, making an exasperated sound. He faced Robbie. "I'm Phil, by the way. It's nice to meet you." He held his hand out. The mechanic's deep brown eyes narrowed, but he took the few steps out into the open to shake Coulson's hand. Skye released the breath she hadn't even realized she was holding.

_"Taking the shot now."_

There was no sound. Just the strange blue lines tracing through the veins from Robbie's neck where the round made contact. He went down without a sound.

Coulson glared at her. "We'll talk about your behavior later. Help me get him to the vehicle."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaannnddd now back to the events of the show... Sorry. I was wanting to throw a whole lot more in and add a whole extra plot, but decided this wasn't the fic for that. 
> 
> Don't worry about Gabe though. That will be addressed :)


	3. Index Protocol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team has to rescue Dr. Franklin Hall while still dealing with the fallout from icing Robbie. They split up to tackle both problems at once, but Skye sees it as being sidelined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not sure if I'm going to write EVERY episode or not, but at least the big ones for sure. So this takes place in S1E3 :)

* * *

 

"Really? You couldn't take the shot once we talked him over to the SUV?"

"You'd been made. You were lucky he didn't kill you."

Skye glared at her SO. "How could you possibly tell that? I was barely starting to get suspicious and I was standing right in front of the guy!" She rolled her shoulders, which were screaming after lugging the impossibly heavy weight of Robbie Reyes back to their SUV along with Coulson.

They pulled up to the airfield where an irritable May was waiting at the ramp to the Bus. "Containment is ready for him," she motioned to Reyes with her chin, "but we have orders coming through right now. One of our own has been abducted and they want us on it. I've already requested another team take care of Reyes' brother and work, typical index protocol." Skye was about to ask several questions but both Coulson and Ward stopped her.

Ward grimaced a bit. "Sorry, Skye, I think you've helped enough for today."

Coulson glared at them both before walking up to join May. "Get settled in. Briefing in 30." They both turned and walked up into the Bus, leaving the younger agents on the runway.

Ward sighed. "I guess we're getting the enhanced to containment ourselves." Simmons made a startled noise, turning to gather her equipment and appear busy.

"Well let's do that  _before_ he wakes up and thinks I'm the one who shot him, yeah?" Skye moved toward the SUV and checked through the tinted windows to see that, thankfully, Reyes was still unconscious. Ward opened the door, tugging on one of the mechanic's arms to support his dead weight, motioning for Skye to do the same. She slid his arm across her shoulders and was, again, sorry for all the physical training her SO was forcing her to do as she helped drag him into the Bus. She had never noticed how thoughtful it was that the cell wasn't too far from the ramp into the cargo hold.

When they had Robbie secured for flight and the ramp closed back up, Ward insisted she needed to make up for the morning drill she missed.

"You've got to be kidding. We only have, what, fifteen minutes?" Skye reluctantly taped her hands, pouting. "I thought I was joining SHIELD, not 24 hour fitness."

Ward ignored her, checking the tape on her hands. "It's called relative strength training, starting with the basics." He moved to show her the position she should take facing the heavy bag. "And next time you miss a drill, you'll owe me 15 push-ups for every minute you're late."

She rolled her eyes, taking up her stance. "Fine Mr. Fun Machine. Better than pull-ups. I don't  _ever_ want to do another pull-up again."

"You find yourself hanging off the edge of a building 20 stories up, you're gonna want to do at least one." He lifted her hands by the elbow so they covered her face. "Stand here," he said, moving her and adjusting her footing.

Skye scoffed a bit at the movement, but Ward stood next to her, taking a mirrored stance with his feet spread and hands raised in front of his face. He demonstrated. "Jab, cross, like this." As he hit the bag, it swung away. He stepped back to allow her to do the same. "Ten minutes."

She hit the bag halfheartedly, not really bothering with her form and definitely not putting any force into it. She could tell he was still upset with her about going off-script with Reyes. She was about to apologize when he moved to evaluate her stance again.

"You know the hardest part of boxing?" he asked as he demonstrated the proper technique again.

"Getting punched in the face?" Skye tossed her head to the side, raising a brow.

Ward ignored her joke. "Keeping your hands up." He pulled both of his hands up to his face, showing her.

She let both of her arms drop in frustration. "Why do I even have to do this? I’m sure Fitzsimmons’ supervising officer didn’t make them do this muscle stuff." She batted weakly at the bag a few times more, pouting.

Ward stared blankly at her. "You said you wanted to be a field agent, like Coulson. Well, if you’d like to switch disciplines," he turned to the lab, shouting to Jemma and Fitz, "What did your SO give you guys for morning drills?"

Fitz finished spritzing a laser with some aerosol spray and Jemma grinned excitedly. "Oh! Atomistic attribute drills." Skye could feel herself smiling to appease Simmons' enthusiasm, but knew she'd lost this one. Ward nodded and shot her a smug look that made her want to punch something other than the heavy bag. Fitzsimmons were still going on about their drills. "Yeah, we'd name the mechanical, chemical, thermal -"

Fitz chimed in, "Electrical properties of materials."

Skye glared at her SO. "Okay, okay! They made your point." She shifted into what she hoped mirrored the position he'd been in and started punching the bag again.

Ward stepped around to brace the other side of it, holding it as she landed her somewhat-more-determined hits. "There will come a moment when you have to commit to this or bail. Every field agent has a defining moment. Ask Coulson. When you have to make the hard call to either dedicate yourself to this or to curl up in a ball and run." He almost sounded like he was trying to give her a pep-talk.

She dropped her hands again to stare at him, surprised he seemed to care so much. Part of her wanted to say something sincere, but the impulse was fleeting. "How can you run if you’re curled up in a ball?" She flashed a grin and picked her hands back up, landing a few more hits.

"It’s my job as your S.O.to make sure you don’t die before then." He lifted her arms by the elbow so her hands covered her face better, giving her a 'you can do better' glare. "Come on."

She punched with a bit more force, putting accent to her words. "So what's yours, Agent Ward?"

He ignored her. "Five more minutes. Try to actually get some jabs in."

She glared at him and focused.  _Jab. Cross. Jab. Cross._ "Your defining moment?" She had no intention of dropping it. But her SO just nodded at her punches and stayed silent. Skye dropped her arms yet again. "Come on, tell me. I want to know." She held his gaze for a moment, hoping to see him budge even just a little bit. He was deliberately watching and waiting for her to hit the bag again, not speaking. She threw another punch, muttering loud enough for him to hear, "I can get Coulson to give you some of that truth serum. You could spill your little heart out to me again."

He bristled a bit. "You mean my level one overshare that miraculously got you to cooperate?"

She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. She was about to protest, but he cut her off. He had that smug look on his face again that made her punch the bag harder than before. "I hate to tell you this, rookie, but we don’t have a truth serum."

"Wha-" Skye wasn't letting that go unchallenged, but they were interrupted by the telltale ding of the overhead and May's voice over the speakers. "Briefing in three. Set for Colorado air field north."

Ward turned without a word and headed up the stairs to prep for the briefing. She stood glaring after him as Fitzsimmons exited their lab and motioned for her to follow.  _Well shit._

* * *

No one's mood had improved in the thirty minutes since they'd reembarked on the Bus. May was still upset at the very existence of Robbie Reyes and Coulson and Ward were both sulking because Skye hadn't played by their rules on her first day in the field.

"Wait, invisible? Cool." Everyone glared at her, especially Jemma, who looked close to tears at the idea of her former professor having been kidnapped. Skye backtracked. "But terrible."

Coulson glanced up at her from the platform screen. "We'll be splitting our time on this one. Ward, you and Skye are going to be staying here to debrief Reyes when he wakes, ideally with as little damage to the Bus as possible."

Ward nodded. Skye was speechless. She was being benched.  _Already_.

There was no time to contradict, Coulson was already continuing. "The rest of us will head to the abduction site and see what we're up against with these so-called invisible assailants."

Jemma scoffed. "They can't  _really_ be invisible. Maybe it was just some sort of advanced cloaking ability."

"Whatever it was, we'll need something that can register any kind of refractions, visible or not-" Fitz was on some kind of science rant, but Skye couldn't understand any of it.

"-and any emissions that the DWARFS might otherwise miss. Goggles that can be worn by one of us would be the obvious choice." Simmons clearly understood, finishing the sentence as if it had been her own thought.

"Obvious, yeah." Still chattering, the two scientists headed toward the stairs down to their lab without being officially dismissed.

May watched them go and turned to Ward and Skye. "We'll be touching down in roughly forty-five minutes. Use them wisely." She stalked back off toward the cockpit, likely to prep for their landing.

Coulson stepped around the interface to eye them both. "Keep it by the book. No more off-script. Everything is by Index Protocols, so when he asks about his brother and work, that's what you tell him."

Ward nodded, but Skye had more questions. "What does that even mean? Wha-"

"We're on it, sir," Ward cut her off.

She shot him a glare before tossing her hair and pursing her lips. "Sure, yeah. We're on it, AC."

"Good. If you need anything, we'll be on comms on site," Coulson said, almost smiling at them and crossing to head to his office. Skye couldn't be bothered to smile at him.

Ward noticed, watching her with a concerned look on his stupidly perfect face. He let out a sigh. "Let's go see if our guest is awake yet."

Reyes was awake and sitting comfortably on the cot from all appearances of the screen outside the cell once they reached it. Skye turned to her SO, relieved to see a bit of alarm flash on his face.  _Good, so he assumed he'd be out still too._ She tilted her head a bit as she watched the feed from inside containment. "You'd think he expected to be there when he woke up. He doesn't look bothered at all."

Ward had his gun in his hand, checking it in his typical efficient, robot-like way before he tucked it into the back of his waistband. "Well, maybe he's more gifted than we knew. Only one way to find out." He keyed in a code and waited for the lock to click before pushing the door open. Skye pressed her lips into a line, composing her face and following him into the cell. So kind of him to give her warning before just  _waltzing_ in.

Her SO stalked over to the only chair on the far side of the interrogation table, seating himself without a word. The mechanic watched him warily from where he was on the cot. Ward motioned to the chair in front of him with a raised brow. Skye could feel an overwhelming amount of male ego in the room and suddenly wished she were  _anywhere_ else. Reyes stared Ward down for a moment before standing and making his way to the seat. Neither of them had so much as looked at her. Oh well. She would let them have their pissing match. If something went dreadfully wrong this time, it wasn't going to be her fault. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, appearing content to just observe.

Ward leaned back in his metal chair, taking in Reyes' appearance. He pulled out his phone, reading the file Skye had compiled. "Roberto "Robbie" Reyes, mechanic at Canelo Auto and Body Shop, high school drop out, guardian to your little brother Gabriel "Gabe" Reyes, both parents deceased, uncle Elias "Eli" Morrow currently incarcerated, owner of a 1969 Black Dodge Charger that has been linked to several vigilante killings." Her SO shook his head, setting the phone down. "Now that was just sloppy, using your own car that could be tracked back to you."

Reyes snickered. "You don't know the first thing about me. You're just some suit with a file, a file that I'm guessing  _she_ got for you." He jerked his head in Skye's direction without even glancing at her. He leaned in toward the table and Skye could see Ward tense up. "You know, she almost had me. If the old man hadn't slipped up and mentioned Lucy, I'd have walked right into this." Robbie's voice was ominous but Skye could hear respect. She wasn't the one who had screwed up. Coulson had slipped up. It'd been Coulson who had been made.  _Wait._

"Who's Lucy?" she asked, stupidly. Both men turned to her. Ward was glaring but Robbie smirked.

"My car. Her name's Lucy. He mentioned the Charger."

Skye rolled her eyes. "Men." Reyes made a sound that might have been a laugh. Ward was still glaring at her.

He turned back to Robbie. "So you're not denying you're the vigilante known as the Ghost Rider, then?"

"That's not as simple as a 'yes' or 'no' question. I know you federales deal in black and whites, but on the streets we live in the gray. It's dirty. Not so easy to just be one thing or the other, comprende?" He watched Ward's impassive gaze. "No, a trustfund gringo like you doesn't get it. Ask your girl. She knows. She's got the streets written all over her."

Her SO didn't flinch. He didn't look back at her, even when Robbie turned to her, raising a questioning brow and letting his gaze drift up and down her. She was pleased she didn't blush, just kept her arms crossed and set her jaw in a challenge, lips pursed. It was a game, this flirting. She'd played it at first too, in the shop. Ward leaned forward menacingly, almost protective. "She's an asset. I know exactly what she's capable of. We're not here for you to fish for information about us. We're here -"

"We're here because you _pendejos_ shot me," Reyes cut him off, crossing his arms and spitting out the insult she could only guess at translating. Skye could see his jaw tighten. He wasn't as calm as he appeared.

"Yes, we tranqued you. We couldn't risk you using your enhanced abilities on an agent and an asset. If we had any reason to believe we could have brought you in without violence, we would have. But your body count left us with no choice." A muscle in Robbie's face twitched as a shadow crossed it. He settled back in the chair without retort. Ward pressed on. "So just tell us if you're the Ghost Rider."

"No. I, Robbie Reyes, am not the Ghost Rider. I told you, it's not that simple." Skye thought she saw something like remorse in his eyes before he set his glare on Ward again with a dare to challenge him. They were missing something. The medical files. Ward needed to ask him about the accident.

She flinched at the sound of metal scraping the floor as Ward slid his chair out. "Well, if you won't be honest with us, I guess we'll just have to leave you here for a while. Hopefully that'll change your mind."

Reyes' eyes burned for a second. Skye saw it, but Ward's back was turned as he was heading to the door. She dropped her hands from where they'd been crossed on her arms in shock. But the glow was gone.

"And who's gonna take care of Gabe, huh? What did you do to my little brother?"

Ward stopped at the door before keying in the code to let himself out. "We have protocols in place for things like this. Your brother thinks you've been sent away to get parts for your shop. Your boss has been well compensated to keep up the story for the time being. Your brother is staying with a friend, from what I understand. We have a team watching him."

Skye saw he was about to put in the code and knew he would be expecting her to follow him out of the cell once he did. If she was going to ask her own questions, she needed to do it now. "You're right, you know."

Ward and Reyes turned to her. She slid in the seat Ward had vacated. Her SO hovered near the door, wary of what she was doing. _So much for letting him be the one who ruined things this time._ She continued. "I was the one who compiled the file on you. But Ward's right too. You were sloppy. There are message boards all over the dark web  _dedicated_ to the Ghost Rider and his sightings. They know your car and they post every time they see it. And guess what. Someone saw it at your shop. So we knew it had to be someone at the shop, but do you know how I knew it was you?" Robbie stared at her, his expression unreadable. "The accident."

His unreadable expression melted into something sour. Skye eyed him almost sympathetically. "Yeah, I know. There's no way you should have walked away from that alive. So you keep saying it's not that simple and that  _Robbie Reyes_ is not the Ghost Rider, and you know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking all these complications have something to do with how you're alive after your accident." She leaned forward, the same way she had to Mike Peterson, - god, that seemed like so long ago - only with more empathy and a whole lot less excitement this time. "We are the perfect people to help uncomplicate things. Why don't you try explaining what happened that night?"

His brown eyes locked on hers. He was searching for something, but she couldn't imagine what. There was nothing to find. He had to have realized it, because he leaned back in the chair, clearly done with their conversation. "Chica, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Skye gave an exasperated sigh. "You'd be surprised what we see and believe around here." She dropped her palms on the table in front of her and pushed herself up. "I hope you change your mind about talking to us." She gave him a half-smile and moved to stand by her SO. Reyes watched them both with suspicion. Ward punched the code in and let her exit first, watching Robbie until they were both out of the room.

As it clicked behind them, Ward spun on her, cornering her. "What the hell was that?"

"What? The part where I almost got through to him?" She forced herself into her SO's personal space just as much as he was encroaching on hers.

He backed down, taking a few steps away from her and toward the cargo hold, seeming almost anxious. "You broke protocol  _again_. And we didn't even get anything out of him for it."

"Seemed like I made more progress than you. And I found out that I wasn't the one he made, Coulson was. So you all have been all pissy with me for  _no reason_. I'd say we got more than something out of him." She raised a brow, daring him to contradict her.

Ward glared, his jaw tight. "You had no idea how he would react to bringing up a traumatic incident. That could have been a disaster. It was dangerous and stupid."

"No. Going in and thinking you can confront a Latino and win him over with your macho thing and whole 'I'm more lethal than you' act was stupid. I realized you weren't picking up on the clues. I am the  _most_ familiar with his file. I have the  _most_ experience interacting with him. If anyone was going to pick up the cues, it was me. So stop treating me like some kind of toddler who needs training wheels. I need you to teach me how to fight, to survive life as a field agent, not interpret data." Skye pushed past him to the stairs. She was going to do what good agents did and write up a report on their interrogation. Hopefully, she'd have it done by the time Coulson and the others got back. Maybe she'd get lucky and AC would even apologize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I was definitely going to do something like a-chapter-an-episode, but the word count kept growing and I asked around and it was suggested that I post as separate parts. The next one will be up soon.


	4. A Man Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye has determined to make herself useful to the team, protocols be damned. And Robbie is bored out of his mind waiting around in a containment cell for SHIELD to decide what to do with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S1E3 part 2... Still not done with it (obviously)...

* * *

 

She was still working on her report, typing away when the team got back from the field. Fitzsimmons were chattering a mile a minute about some kind of gravitational fields and Coulson's voice came over the speakers asking for everyone to meet in the lab. Skye read over her summary of the interaction with Reyes, hoping her anger at Ward didn't shine through  _too_ much. She sent it to the tablet to hand it to AC, snapping her laptop closed and heading down to the lab with the report in hand.

As she hopped down the last few stairs, the rest of the team was already there, with Ward in intense conversation with Coulson.  _Damn it._ She stepped into the lab, striding over to the two of them, not acknowledging her SO as she handed Coulson the tablet. "My report on the interrogation. I figured it would be faster than you having to ask about what happened." She could feel both of their eyes on her but wasn't really in the mood to back down.

"Ward was just telling me some of what happened with you two and Reyes. Sounds like you've built some repertoire with him. He might even talk to you, given time. Unfortunately, time isn't really something we have a ton of right now." Coulson stepped over to where Fitz had some kind of small device in a machine, examining it with obnoxious glasses that were lit on either side.

They all seemed reasonably afraid of whatever it was. Skye didn't like any of this. "What is that?"

Coulson shook his head. "I don't think Fitzsimmons're entirely sure yet. But we  _do_  know either someone cracked our comm system or Dr. Hall's movements leaked from inside SHIELD."

May's steel face tightened a bit. "You really think we have a mole?" Skye's heart dropped at that, a small SD card almost burning where it pressed against her chest in its hiding place.

"I think you should go through the communication logs, rule it out. We’ll work the tractor tread that we found on the scene."

Skye leaned forward from the table she'd rested on. "Tractor? I can do that, instead of pull-ups. I can upload an image of the tread pattern and check to see if there’s any sort of –"

Her SO cut her off. "Already done. Matched it to a 2010 model. Found a list of purchasers within a 500 mile radius. Narrowed down to those with priors, financial troubles or propensity for risk-taking." She glared, not bothering to hide any of her annoyance.

Ward ignored her, pulling what he found up on a screen behind them. He hit a button on his tablet and pointed. "Three suspects."

Three mugshots showed. Coulson walked up to the images. "Who may have sold their construction equipment to the kidnappers? We’ll ask." Ward nodded and left the lab.

Skye debated for a moment, wanting to see what Ward had really said about her going off-script for a second time in a day. No, there would time for that after they found Hall. "Hey, so, Ward said a funny thing. He said that you guys don’t have a truth serum."

Coulson smiled curously. "Did he? Ward said that?"

She frowned at him. "Yeah," she said slowly.

"Interesting."

"Yeah." She was hoping for more, but Coulson just walked away. "Hey, wait!"

May's voice stopped her from pursuing. "Hey."

She turned her attention to May, who dropped a giant binder into her unsuspecting arms. Skye was shocked at how heavy one binder could be. "Do you want me to bench press this?"

May was clearly not amused. "Read it. Every communication out of HQ since they decided to transfer Dr. Hall." The older agent strode out of the lab, not waiting for a response, and leaving a shocked Skye in her wake.

She just glanced down at the gigantic thing in her arms. "Hang in there, doc. It’s gonna be awhile."

 *  *  *

 _Damn_ , things were boring wherever the hell he was now. Robbie lounged on the cot, his head aching from whatever that asshole agent had shot him with. Or maybe it was from the Rider. It didn't like being caged, he could tell that much. But they weren't about to cause a scene in federal custody. That was the kind of trouble that neither of them needed. So the Rider settled into the back of his mind and he tried his best to figure out what exactly they wanted from him.

It had seemed like all the agent - what had she called him? Ward? - wanted was to know who the Rider was. They just needed to confirm it was him.  _Then what? They throw me in a hole and leave us both there?_ But the girl, the 'asset', had said they could uncomplicate things. He had almost told her. But the Rider had looked into her and seen her hiding betrayal and he wasn't about to trust some of his darkest secrets to a girl with betrayal in her soul.

They'd called the Rider 'enhanced abilities'. As if he was one of those heroes you saw on TV or something. Said there was protocol for these things. No, they weren't regular federales. They must be SHIELD. He'd heard about them, heard whispers about when people got too close to secrets they weren't supposed to know. Uncle Eli had wanted to keep his lab's research off of their radar, afraid of them taking it away. He never expected to  _be_ one of those secrets, much less get caught because he thought some girl was cute and offering him the chance to look at an old 'Vette.

"Idiot."

 *  *  *

Skye needed a change of scenery. The communications logs were starting to blur together. And it was  _boring_. Mostly team movements and reports. Nothing overly exciting and, so far, nothing incriminating or involving Dr. Hall. She supposed this was her punishment for shouting about data analysis at her SO. Now here she was, interpreting raw data.

She picked up the obnoxiously large binder and decided to head down to the lab. At least she could read with some company. When she made her way down the spiral stairs, Fitz was practically ready to leap out of his skin about some kind of atomic diagram he had projected on a monitor behind him.

As the door opened, he nearly shouted at her. "Gravitonium. It's an extremely rare high-atomic numbered element."

Simmons glanced at her, eyes glowing and clearly just as excited about this discovery. "It powers the device." Skye plopped the binder down on a lab table with a  _bang_ , but it did little to stop their sciency rant. Jemma was continuing with her explanation. "It's so extremely rare that most people didn't believe it existed, much less the theory that an isolated positive charge -"

" - would turn the flow from isotropic -" Fitz continued her thought.

Skye's head was starting to hurt. This was way beyond the few high school science classes she'd taken. "Guys. High school dropout here. How does the device work again?"

They both looked rather lost. Fitz glanced at Simmons, who got up and walked over to the diagram of the atom of gravitonium. She took some kind of school teacher stance, speaking slowly and pointing. "Well, gravitonium distorts gravity fields within itself, causing an undulating amorphous shape."

Fitz chimed in. "Yeah, which causes these, um, wiggly bits here," he wiggled his fingers to demonstrate, "but when an electric current is applied the gravitonium solidifies." He brought his hands together with a  _snap_ in emphasis. "And those gravity fields erupt," he vibrated his hands, trying to show the movement of the atom before making an explosion sound and flinging his hands to mimic them blowing up, "randomly changing the rules of gravity around it." He paced the lab, animated at the prospect. "Well, so now you can imagine what would happen to a big rig at 100 kilometers per hour. Or, uh, well, you could just remember, cause we saw it already. Didn’t we?"

Simmons nodded approvingly at his explanation. She turned to Skye. "Yeah, and guess which genius published every theory about gravitonium and possible applications, years ago."

Skye sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Dr. Franklin Hall."

Jemma smiled sadly. "Yes."

Fitz held up a hand, clearly having a point to make. "Correct. And Dr. Hall attended the University of Cambridge at the same time as Ian Quinn."

Skye shook her head, unsure. Everything she knew said this was wrong. "Coulson may be off on this. Quinn is a notoriously good guy. His charity endowment's something like $8 billion."

Simmons scoffed. "Yes, with money made from leeching the Earth of its resources. Looks like he's dug up another."

Skye couldn't really argue with that, but it still didn't quite sit right. She picked up her binder and made her way out of the lab and back to her bunk. There had to be something in those stupid logs that would tell her who leaked the doc's transfer.

*

She'd read more than half of the communications when raised voices drew her attention. They were arguing about whether or not to go after Quinn again. Apparently, wherever he'd set up shop was notoriously anti-SHIELD. She set her binder aside and decided to go listen in. Everyone else had the same idea, the whole team was gathered in the briefing area, watching Coulson and Ward debate how insane it was to go into Malta.

"The man’s a prisoner, and it’s up to us to get him out."

Ward looked at Coulson like he'd grown a second head. "We’ve checked the specs. There’s no way into Quinn’s compound without a large SHIELD strike force or a man inside. He's got Neodymium laser fencing surrounding the property."

Coulson seemed to ignore Ward's protests. "They’ll never allow a strike force into Malta. Plus, this weekend, Quinn Worldwide’s got its annual shareholders gathering. We’d risk global outrage, but –"

" - if we go in alone -" May continued his thought, pulling a Fitzsimmons thing.

"SHIELD can disavow us, claim ignorance," Coulson finished.

May didn't appear entirely convinced. "Without a man inside it’s impossible, unless you’re immune to Neodymium laser emissions."

Fitz perked up, seeming to have gotten an idea. "If we had a monkey, we could get in."

Jemma looked scandalized, squeezing her eyes shut in frustration. "Ugh, Fitz!"

He didn't seem to hear her. "If we had a small monkey he could slip through the sensors and disable the fence’s power source with his adorable little hands."

Skye was officially tuning out their conversation. It had devolved into the ridiculous. Coulson even looked like he was entertaining Fitz's monkey idea, which was the scary part. She pulled out her phone. Something AC had said had given her an idea, and it was  _way_ better than reading pages and pages of communications logs. She pulled up Quinn Worldwide's website and looked for the details on whatever event they had going on.  _Yes!_ Of course a company like theirs did electronic invitations.

"I could go in." No one was paying any attention to her.  _Oh well._ She decided to just hack it anyway. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right? That seemed to be the order of the day.

Ward was asking to make some kind of plan for a solo mission. "Drop me in the hills outside of Valletta. I’ll spend a few weeks establishing a cover, gathering intel –"

Coulson wasn't hearing it. "Hall doesn't have a few weeks."

Simmons rolled her eyes, frustrated at everyone's apparent short-term memory. "And to restate, any agent of SHIELD caught on Maltese soil can be shot to death with bullets - legally." Fitz agreed with her.

Skye straightened a bit, speaking up again. "Not me. I could go in."

Finally, everyone turned to look at her. Ward seemed to think she was joking. Of course he did. "Skye, this is serious."

Coulson understood. "Wait." He moved closer to her, eyeing her cautiously to see if she  _was_ joking or maybe unsure. "What are you saying?"

She shrugged. "Well, I’m not an agent of SHIELD, so I could go in without breaking all these stupid rules."

Jemma scoffed. "International laws," she corrected. Skye rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to her phone that she was typing code into rapidly. She'd already broken into the guest list and added her own name, but she wasn't going to tell them that - yet.

"This isn't something the Rising Tide can hack, Skye." Ward clearly was underestimating her skills.

She glared at him. This whole 'not thinking she was capable' thing he had going was getting old real fast. "You said you could go in with a man inside."

"And you want to be that man?" May, at least, seemed to be considering the prospect.

"Fitzsimmons loved the guy, and he needs help. They could be torturing him, or worse, making him do strength-training." She shot another dark look at her SO before resuming the work on her phone. An email had pinged. It looked like Quinn had noticed her hack and appreciated her skills. She was officially invited, not just hacked in, but really, truly invited.

Ward still clearly didn't like this plan. "But you don't have the background or clearance or experience with any of this." He moved to stand next to Coulson, maybe hoping that would put an end to the whole thing.

Skye raised a brow, daring him to tell her she couldn't go. "I know." She held up her phone and showed them all the screen, a triumphant smirk on her face. "But I've got an invitation." She tossed her hair a bit, glancing at her phone again. "Well, technically it's an e-vite."

*  *  *

Beeping sounds came from the keypad by his cell door. So they hadn't all forgotten about him after all. As the door swung open, he was expecting to see Agent Ward again but was pleasantly surprised to see just Skye - if that was even her name - with a couple plates of food.

She smiled proudly as he raised a brow in question. "We're about to all be really busy with a suicide mission so I figured someone should feed you."

"Ah." He watched as she put the plates on the table, seating herself in the chair. "Am I like a pet now?" He tried not to sound angry, but the growl crept into his voice.

She sighed. "No. But the mission we're working on takes priority over figuring out what to do with you. You're safe in here, can't hurt anyone, everything's good. But if we don't move now, someone else could die with our other task."

"So you're here to apologize."

"Technically, I'm here because everyone else is busy and there was no one to tell me 'no'." Robbie frowned at her, suspicious. She nodded, seeming to understand how it looked. "I'm not an agent, and I'm new to the team, I'm sure you got that impression. So I'm not supposed to be here. But I also know what it's like to be left in the dark and I didn't want to do that to you, so I wanted to make sure you knew that we're going to help you as soon as we're done with this mission."

He could see she was sincere and wondered why she wanted to help someone she believed was a murderer. "That agent called you an asset. What does that mean?" He watched her face closely, wondering if this was some scheme, if he was being played again.

She gave him an uncertain smile, shrugging. "I guess that I have skills that can be useful."

Robbie nodded. "Like flirting with mechanics so you can drug them."

To her credit, she flinched. "Actually, no. I'm kind of in the doghouse for that one. And for asking you about your accident. And if I wasn't about to go on this mission that will probably get me killed, they'd probably kick me off the team for being in here talking to you unsupervised." She laughed, brown eyes glistening. "I'm a hacker. I broke into their systems, that's how I got on their radar." He didn't need the Rider to tell him she was telling the truth.

"So does SHIELD really make everyone who gets too close to their secrets disappear?" He grabbed a sandwich off of one of the plates she'd set on the table, settling into the chair across from her.

She snickered, twirling her long hair. "Nah. They're way more likely to make you seem crazy for believing in the secret in the first place, sneak away the evidence, and play dumb." She swiped a piece of fruit off of the other plate. "When did you figure out we were SHIELD?"

He shrugged. "No one else would care so much about whether or not I was  _actually_ the Ghost Rider, just whether or not I killed those vatos." He saw her sit back in her chair, a smug look on her face. "Hey, that's not a confession, chica."

"It sounded pretty damn close, Reyes." She looked like she was trying hard not to seem too pleased with herself, arms crossed and her long hair framing her face and shoulders. It was kind of adorable.

"Nah. I was just saying, no one else would care so much about proving someone was actually - what did your robot-agent call it? Enhanced? They would just care about the crimes. So it stands to reason you guys care more about enhanced individuals than solving crimes, so not just federales or something like that. Had to be SHIELD." He finished his sandwich, sitting back in his seat, mimicking her confident posture.

She nodded, impressed. "Not bad for a mechanic."

"I've had a good bit of time to myself to think down here," he said, shrugging.

Skye seemed like she was about to reply when the pad on the wall by the door lit up, chiming.  _"Skye, get to the cargo hold_ now.  _Training until we land._ _"_ Robbie stared at the door for a second.  _So her name really is Skye._

She paled at the sound of Ward's voice. "Busted. Guess I better go prep for my suicide solo mission." She gave him a half smile, still looking almost scared with her brown eyes wide. "Wish me luck."

And Robbie was alone again. He found himself hoping she didn't actually die on whatever mission she was about to be on.

 *  *  *

Skye wasn't really sure what had just happened. What had possessed her to go into a room with a known violent enhanced individual? With the excuse of giving him food? Ward was going to kill her if this mission didn't. As she walked into their training space in the cargo hold, he was holding a gun toward her.

She raised her arms in a halfhearted surrender. "Don't shoot."

He cocked his head in impatience. "Disarm me."

She laughed, until she realized he wasn't even close to smiling. This had to be some kind of punishment for breaking protocol.. again. "You're serious." He didn't respond, just kind of motioned with the weapon that was directly pointed at her chest. She thought maybe they'd gone over something like this in one of their basic defense sessions, but she'd probably been whining too much to pay attention.

She grabbed for the gun, but Ward grabbed her, twisting her with the gun to her head and his arm firmly across her shoulders. She huffed in frustration.

He released her and leveled the gun at her again. "Now, again, slowly, what's first?" She racked her memory of the defense training, staring at the gun and his hand holding it. She grabbed his wrist, spinning under his arm and placing herself against his chest. "And then?"

She couldn't remember. "Then? Things are moving too quickly. I'm a proper southern girl." The southern accent was a bit much, but it was better than admitting she didn't listen when he lectured her on how she was constantly going to be under imminent threat of death. "You'll make me untidy."

Ward dropped his head, unimpressed with her joke. He sighed, grabbing her hand that wasn't already on his wrist and placing it on top of his that held the gun. "Twist the thumb, palm the barrel." He ripped the gun out of her grip and stalked away in frustration.

"Ow." It actually did hurt.

He wheeled around to face her. "You're gonna die and leave us hanging out to dry, you know that? You’re going in with no self-defense skills -"

She cut him off. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve." She'd really had enough of this today.

He didn't seem to have heard her. "You need muscle memory, fundamentals, the tools to turn yourself -"

"Into a whole bag of tools?" She crossed her arms, done with his condescending bullshit.

He took a few steps toward her. "How did you learn computer science without committing yourself to it?"

She shrugged. It wasn't something that ever took effort for her. "C.S. comes naturally to me. I’m sorry I’m not a naturally whatever you are."

That struck a nerve. He stepped closer to her, speaking in a quiet, angry voice she hadn't heard from him. "You think this came naturally? I had a brother who beat the crap out of me, me and my little brother, for nothing. For eating a piece of his birthday cake. I had to learn to protect us, the way I am trying to protect you." She opened her mouth to respond, but didn't have any words. Suddenly, Ward made a little more sense. "That was my moment. You asked."

She shook her head. That wasn't how she wanted him to have to tell her, though. "Sorry. I didn't mean to push." She met his stare and couldn't read what was in it. Ward was always so serious and intense. At least he was distracted. "But I did manage to take this." She broke whatever moment they were having, holding up his gun.

He was unimpressed, crossing the little space that remained between them to grab the weapon from her. "Getting the gun is one thing. Pulling the trigger, that is another." He leveled the weapon at her chest once more. "Now, again, slowly, what's first?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the remainder of what I had already done... So the next installment will be a little bit of a wait. *Hides* Sorry! 
> 
> Still determined to finish S1E3 before I move on to answering prompts though, promise!


	5. Making Deals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye goes undercover as a member of the Rising Tide to Quinn's event. But it doesn't all go as planned and, after all the protocols she's broken, the team doesn't have reason to trust her.  
> But if she doesn't make it back she can't make good on her promise to help Robbie.

* * *

 

They gathered around the interface in the briefing room. Coulson wanted to go over the details  _one last time_ just to be sure that everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing. "Skye will walk in the front door. The only external access point to Quinn’s underground facility is from a beach cove." He moved to examine the blueprints of Quinn's compound that were up on the screen and pointed to a spot near the beach. "A two man extraction team could slip in there, but it’s not easy. Fitzsimmons."

Fitz stepped forward, tapping on his tablet to bring up a rendering of the laser fencing. "The perimeter is surrounded by a 20 foot high neodymium laser grid. Touch it and you’re toast."

Coulson grimaced. "Dead toast. The only way to disable the grid is to crack the system and trigger a reboot. This would give the team three seconds to cross. Of course Quinn’s too smart to allow any wireless access on his property."

Skye smirked. "That's where I come in."

Simmons reached for a case that was sitting on the screened table in front of her, opening it to reveal a couple of mundane items. "Yes, working compact - holds up under x-ray."

Fitz snagged it from her as Ward and Coulson sidled up to get a closer look, confused. Fitz opened the compact, displaying it as if on one of those home shopping programs. He made a grand gesture. "Desert Rose, to match your complexion." Skye smiled uncertainly. Fitz was straight, right?

He continued. "But, oh, what's this?" The mirror lit up with red signal dots vertically lining the left side. "A read out, okay? Turns green if you're in close enough proximity to a computer to gain wireless access." Everyone watched as the lights switched from red on the left to five green vertical lights on the right.

Simmons smiled in pride. "When it does, you just drop this nearby and walk out. We'll do the rest. Easy as pie."

"Or it will be, if you stick to the plan." Ward racked his gun, the distinct  _click_ sounding out in emphasis. Skye did her best not to glare at him for still doubting her.

She grabbed the compact from Fitz. "Got it. Plan, green, drop, walk - pie."

Coulson walked over to have another quiet argument with May. He made his way back to the team with purpose. "All right team, suit up."  


 *  *  *

Skye's version of 'suit up' was her best dress and curling her hair. She pulled up to Quinn's estate for the party in a taxi, next to all the much more expensive cars. She took a deep breath, preparing herself, and crashed one of the world's most exclusive parties.

Even in her pink dress, Skye felt under-dressed. These people looked ready for the red carpet, all mingling and chatting in low voices. A waitress offered a flute of champagne, which she gratefully accepted, continuing deeper into the gathering, observing and taking it all in. A waiter offered her some kind of hors d'oeuvre, and she was about to snack before being stopped by a voice she didn't recognize.

"Who are you?" She turned to see an older man, dressed in a suit that Skye couldn't even guess how much it cost.

Another man, much younger, rushed over. "Oh, apologies for his manners. He knows very little English."

Skye let out a small breath that she hoped seemed like a laugh. "Oh, that - ugh - that's what- whatever." She waved it off and offered her hand. "Skye."

The older man almost suspiciously shook her hand. "Qasim Zaghlul."

Skye smiled as Jemma and May's voices came through in her ear as soon as they heard his name. Now  _this_ she could do. "Big fan. You built half of Dubai, including the Arabian Blade." Zaghlul smirked at her. It was working. "I love that building, it's super scifi. Where's you wife..."

May's voice came through the comms. " _Wife's name is Nadrah."_

"...Nadrah?"

_"Twin sons."_

Skye tilted her head slightly. "Is she staying at home with the boys?" She smiled as she could hear Fitz in the briefing room as well.

_"How's she doing?"_

Simmons and May both almost sounded impressed.  _"She's good."_

Skye beamed and excused herself, gently touching Zaghlul on the arm. "The pleasure is mine." She laughed as she walked away, actually feeling like she could be an agent, putting her hand to her ear to address the team. "I could get used to this, people. It's like Siri if it worked." She turned and spotted Quinn in a group of who she imagined were the world's leaders in every industry. "Skipper to Bravo, I got eyes on Top Dog. The Eagle is landing on it."

Simmons' voice came through confused.  _"What are you doing?"_

Skye sighed. "Uh, sorry, I - I don't know. I see Quinn. I'm gonna go talk to him." No one from the Bus responded, so she continued toward the group Quinn had gathered around him. They followed his every move, so she maneuvered her way into his path, joining the little fan club.

Quinn was mid-story as she did. "I mean, that and it's effective on the industrial average." Everyone else laughed, so she did too, assuming it was the punchline of some kind of joke that went  _way_ over her head.

She stepped forward, still smiling as if she understood. "Yeah, right? Ian Quinn. I'm your last minute party crasher. Skye." She held out her hand and he took it, looking her over in what appeared to be appreciation.

"Oh. Wow." He laughed a bit, and she couldn't help but chuckle at the awkwardness. "Great to meet you." He turned to the others gathered around him, almost as if presenting her. "This is Skye, a member of The Rising Tide." All eyes were on her and all she could do was give a shy wave. "They're a group of hackers. They've gotten some pretty big secrets out to the public."

Skye ducked in what she hoped looked like modesty. "I prefer 'hacktivist'. I'm glad you've heard of our site."

Quinn seemed offended. "I read it. We think very much alike, more freedom of information, less government infringing on everyone's rights. I'm a fan."

She was  _not_ blushing. "That explains the invite. This is a tough party to get into."

He was still determined to compliment her. "Not as hard to get into as the encrypted back channel you contacted us through to request the invite."

Skye laughed.  _Ian fucking Quinn was flirting with her!_ "That's sort of where I live."

"You've got to show me how you did that. I mean, if you sign on."

Her brain short-circuited. She glanced around at the group still gathered there, then stared back at Quinn. "Sign what, now?"

He smiled another charming smile, but she wasn't so star-struck now. He wanted something. "I've been known to turn a few black hats into white hats. Not just for vulnerability analysis, but for very creative thinking."

She stuttered. "A-Are you offering me a job?"

"Well I didn't invite you here for your pretty face. I didn't know you  _had_ a pretty face. Yes, I want to hire you before someone else snatches you up." He walked away, leaving her shell-shocked and barely able to process.

May's voice came through her earpiece.  _"That seemed to go well."_

Skye had to consider for a moment. "Yeah, it did." She sipped at her champagne as Quinn stepped up to a podium under a tent to address the party.

He launched into his speech, as charismatic and charming as he had been while trying to woo her. "Many of you shareholders have been with us for years, and I see a few new names here, but I want to thank you all for traveling so far to this beautiful country. And, well, for slumming it at Shaba Tal-Banar." Skye glanced around at the ex-governor's estate.  _Slumming, indeed._ But Quinn was just getting on his soap box. "This country where we are allowed to pursue progress and profit without the stranglehold of regulations that are now choking our world. The United States government, the E.U., the DRTC, SHIELD, these are just a few of the institutions that are guilty of halting the development of new technology for anyone, except themselves. We dare defy them with a new idea. They steal in and sweep it out from under us. But not today. You’re all aware of what Quinn Worldwide has been able to do with basic minerals, let alone Uranium or Plutonium, despite these unjust restrictions that weigh the scales in the other guy’s favor."

Skye eyed the crowd, seeing they were all focused on Quinn and his world-domination pep-talk. She could hear him announcing his plans for gravitonium as she ducked into the mansion, pulling out the compact and wandering down a hallway in search of a signal. She stopped outside a set of engraved wooden doors. She pushed against them, tried pulling, but they were locked.

"It's locked, but there's no lock."

Fitz responded, sounding like he had a mouthful of something, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know what it was. _"Eh, check for a keypad."_

She checked the wall on either side of the door, leaning. "Nothing. Wait, you can hack a keypad?" She was moderately impressed.

Fitz seemed disappointed. _"No, not over the phone."_

May's voice came through the comm.  _"Is there a reception desk?"_

Skye glanced back up the hallway to see a desk and set off toward it. "Okay, yeah." She stood behind the desk, ready. "Well, now what do I do?"

"What are you trying to do?" Quinn's voice startled her and she about dropped the champagne flute she was still holding.

Instead, she gently set it on the desk, laughing lightly. "Just," she glanced around the desk for some kind of cover story, "looking for a pen." She grabbed one out of a holder and held it up to show him. "Here we go." She laughed uncomfortably and could tell he wasn't buying it. "Got to write down all those good ideas, you know what I mean? Of course you know what I mean. You probably have like ten pens for all your ideas."

He frowned at her. "What are you really doing?"

Skye's mind scrambled for anything to say other than blurting out the truth. She settled on a half-truth. "Alright. I'm busted. I was trying to get a glimpse behind your office doors, see how things really operate."

Quinn stepped toward her threateningly. "I invite you here as a guest, you treat me like another corrupt institution, looking for trade secrets to leak online." He pulled out his phone, dialing quickly and raising it to his mouth. "Security."

Skye panicked. _Okay, whole truth then._ "No, no, no. Wait." She used the pen and grabbed paper off the reception desk. He eyed her suspiciously, but was no longer calling security, so that was progress. "It’s just with all these la-di-da people, you have to be so guarded, so careful. What you say, what secrets you reveal." He watched as she wrote in big, block letters on the piece of printer paper. "And…I was hoping that you and I could be honest with one another. If you know what I mean."

She held up the paper.  **SHIELD IS LISTENING**. Quinn's face changed and she knew she had him. She pressed her lips together, indicating she couldn't speak, and nodded. He moved past her to press a button on the desk, and she heard the click of his office doors unlocking. She followed him into the belly of the beast, hoping the team would forgive her. She was about to go off-script, probably break protocol  _again_. Whatever, it was only like the third time in a day.  


 *  *  *

Robbie could feel the Rider getting restless. It needed souls to judge, scores to settle. The pounding in his head wasn't improving, but he didn't really know if there was even anyone around to see about getting anything for it. Or if anyone would care.  _Fuck it_. He paced the length of the room a few times before banging on his cell door.

"Oi! I know there's got to be  _someone_ out there. I just want some meds for this killer headache from whatever the hell you idiots shot me with." No response. He wondered where exactly he was. When he'd woken up, he'd been strapped into some kind of flight seat, so he assumed this was on a plane, but that didn't mean he was where anyone could hear him. Maybe he could set off an alert. He keyed in a couple of too obvious codes on the keypad, causing it to light up red and beep obnoxiously.

The wall above the keypad flashed and lit up and he realized it was a screen. A face popped up, some gringa, who looked like she would rather be anywhere other than talking to him. She had what sounded like a British accent. "Mr. Reyes, I highly doubt you're going to be able to guess the code to let yourself out."

"Wasn't trying to. You guys just weren't answering knocks, so I figured a few alerts might get your attention." He moved away from the door. He didn't want to appear threatening. The last thing he needed was for someone to start a fight while the Rider was this agitated.

The Brit appeared mortified. "Oh! I'm so sorry! We've all been wrapped up with keeping tabs on Skye, we weren't even thinking about you! What can I do for you?"

Robbie stared at the screen for a moment. She was a strange one. Nothing like that robot-agent, Ward. "I just need some medicina for my headache. Whatever the hell your agent Ward shot me with has left me with one serious hangover."

A squeak of some sort came through the screen. "Of course! I'll clear it with Agent May and get it for you right away!" The screen flickered to black and Robbie was left alone again - or, as alone as he could ever be. _Keeping tabs on Skye_ , she had said. That didn't sound overly promising. And now the Rider wasn't willing to sit back and wait for this situation to work itself out much longer.

_You know, for an immortal demon, you sure are impatient. We haven't even been in here for a whole day and you already want to burn your way out._

_I'm not overly fond of prisons, Roberto._

Robbie snickered.  _Yeah, I'm getting that. Give Skye time to get back. She said she'd help figure it out after this mission. If that falls through, we can raise all the hell you want._

The Rider hissed at the back of his mind, almost as if it were settling in.  _Deal_.

"Who are you talking to?" Robbie looked up from where he was sitting on the cot to see an older woman standing in the doorway. She carried herself as if she could break him and was definitely glaring at him as if she wished she could kill him with just a stare.

"Didn't realize I was talking out loud. Sorry." Her face didn't even move at his answer. He tried again. "I wasn't talking to anyone."

"You mentioned Skye." Her gaze flicked to the table and the empty plates. He'd finished everything she'd brought a while ago. He bit down the impulse to ask if Skye was alright on her so-called suicide solo mission. "I read the report, she broke protocol to talk to you. Twice. Looks like maybe again before she left." The door clicked shut and, honestly, Robbie hadn't noticed it was still open. This woman was basically a wall in front of that open doorway. He would never have gotten past her. She took a step toward him, still openly staring him down. "Do you know Skye from her time in LA from before she joined up with us? Is that why she's helping you?"

He was confused. "What? No. I met her in the shop that day with your agent Phil or whatever his name is. Listen, lady, I just want this headache to go away, so if you could ask the nice one to come back, that would be great."

"I brought you the meds Simmons suggested." She held up a small paper cup. "But I want to know something in return." She moved forward, her entire presence menacing.

Robbie grimaced. The Rider was ready to take over and end this threat. "I know what you want. You want the answer to Ward's question. You want to know if I'm the Rider." He could feel his eyes burning as he met her stare. "No, but if you keep me caged much longer, you'll meet him. I can't pacify him forever."

She held his gaze coolly as he felt the brown return to his eyes. She nodded, handing him the paper cup. "Agent Melinda May."

He took the cup warily, glancing at the two large pills in it. He sighed. "I don't suppose you've got any water to wash these down?" May shook her head. He shrugged and dry swallowed them, cringing.

"So it's a Jekyll-Hyde thing."

"What?"

May crossed his small cell to sit at what he now knew was an interrogation table. "You and the Rider. It's a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing, right? Similar to the Hulk." Her tone was icy and threatening.

He tossed his head. "I guess. If you throw in a little Faustus." He sat back down on the cot. Something about this Melinda May still had him on edge. This felt like a trap. She clearly didn't like him.

"And that's how you recovered from your accident. You got a second chance at life, have a brother at home who needs you. Why take on the mantle of the Spirit of Vengeance?" Her face showed no emotion, but she was still glaring at him as if she wished he would shrivel up.

"That was the deal. I get another chance, he gets to wreak vengeance. And he craves it. He needs to kill the guilty." Robbie didn't dare glance at the agent seated at the table. He could feel her hatred radiating from across the room.

"And how does he determine who is guilty? How does he decide who lives and who dies?"

He sighed. He already sounded crazy enough, might as well tell her the truth. "He can see into the souls of his victims. He only burns the guilty."

She stood suddenly, without a word. His head jerked to watch her. She moved to the door before turning to face him, impassive face still impossible to read. "To answer the question you didn't ask, Skye was fine last we heard, but we lost contact with her right before I came in here. We're hoping she still comes through for the team."

Before Robbie could respond or ask any other questions, she punched in the code and was out the door.

The Rider was there, in the back of his mind.  _They have no idea how bad it can get if that girl doesn't come back and make good on her word to us. They really better hope she comes back._ Robbie couldn't disagree.  


 *  *  *

Skye stared around Quinn's office in open amazement. "My office had less space, more wheels." She stepped over to a large window. "Wow. A view of the ocean  _and_ the pool."

He eyed her warily as she paced. He nodded at her. "Not a bad place to do business."

She ran her hand over a sofa that she honestly  _didn't_ want to know how much it cost. May's voice rang out in her ear.  _"Got the dispatch leaking Hall’s location. User’s an alias."_ Good. Things were still moving. She just hoped they trusted her - not that they had any reason to.

Fitz was already asking the question Skye wanted to.  _"Oh, can you trace the DHCP server –"_

Skye didn't hear what May replied. She was pulling her earpiece out and dropping it in the glass of champagne that she'd been carrying with her through the whole party. She let out a sigh. "Much better. Haven't felt that someone's-watching-my-every-move feeling since I failed my driver's test." She tossed her hair and flopped down onto the ridiculous sofa.

Quinn held the glass up to the light, staring at the comm quizzically. "You want to tell me what the hell is going on?" He glared at her. "SHIELD got to you?"

She smirked. "They picked me up in LA, I helped them in a crisis, and now they want to recruit me."

"Of course they do." He set the glass down with a  _clink_.

Skye imagined she was doing her best impression of Ward and played up her arrogance. "So, I played along. Talk about inside info. I have a bunk on their plane. I've been gathering intel, biding my time until could become useful. I thought this qualified."

Maybe she wasn't doing such a good impression, because he had a suspicious look on his face. "Why would they trust you with a covert operation like this?"

It was a valid question. She hadn't really left them a choice. That might not sound too good though. "Something about SHIELD not breaking international laws. They had no other options, whereas I like to keep mine open." She raised a brow and gave a knowing smile. Quinn seemed to finally be at ease. He settled back into the sofa and eyed her with renewed interest.  


 *  *  *

The keypad lit up and the door slammed open. Agent May flew into the room in an obvious fury. Robbie sat up from where he was reclining on his cot. He rolled his eyes. "I'm guessing you're not bringing me lunch."

She held her face in that same impassive stare. "What did Skye say to you before she left?"

"What?"

"You heard me, Reyes. What did she say to you before she left? I know she was in here, I know you two talked. I need to know what she said."

Something in her voice was not entirely anger. There was a tinge of panic and Robbie felt his stomach drop. "She said she was going on a solo suicide mission. That everyone was going to be busy with this mission and that you all would deal with me after you were done with it. She said that I was contained and safe, but people could die if you didn't deal with whatever this is first. Said she just wanted to explain, said someone owed it to me and she didn't want to leave me in the dark."

Her lips thinned, but that was the only reaction. "That sounds like Skye." She paced over to the table. "And she didn't say anything about her plans for the mission?"

"No, somehow that seems like crossing a line, even for her." Robbie leaned forward. "Why? What's going on?"

She tightened her jaw. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."

He narrowed his eyes at her, glaring. "If it's going to keep me in here longer, it is. Your asset told me that she would help me when she was done with this mission. She owes me that."

Agent May gave him a blank stare. "Then I guess we all want the same thing right now." And she was gone again.

Given his few interactions with Skye, he could only imagine what she was up to, but none of it was good.

"Ay díos mio," he muttered.  


 *  *  *

Quinn was staring out the large window overlooking his excessive waterfront/poolfront view.

Skye needed to keep him talking, reel him in. The team was counting on her and who knew what trouble Ward and Coulson were getting up to on the beach. "You're saying they wanted to rope me in because I pose a genuine threat?"  _Contain the Rising Tide threat_ , Ward had said. Quinn actually wasn't terribly far off.

"Yes, and fit their profile."

"Profile?"

He smirked at her. "Sure. You're a criminal, you have a warrant somewhere." He said it almost as if it were a compliment.

She scoffed. "Probably." She didn't, actually. She'd wiped them all.

"Specialized skill set."

Skye tossed her hair again. "I try to stay humble, but fail."

He nodded. "No family." Any quick retort died on her lips. She lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit a nerve, but that is what these people do, SHIELD." He leaned in closer to her, as if he were a friend, as if he hadn't just used one of her biggest insecurities to try and prey on her. "They prey on fear and loneliness and desperation, and then they offer a home to those who have no one else to turn to. I can offer you something better."

Skye looked away from him. It might sound a lot more tempting if it wasn't so damn manipulative. He knew he'd struck a weak spot and was pressing it. It didn't make her vulnerable - it made her angry.

He was still pressing. "Stay with us, there's no secrets, no lies and no agenda. You're free to do what you do without big brother watching over you." He wandered back over to sit next to her on the sofa. She watched him with raised brows. He clearly felt in control. "But first, you have to tell me exactly what agenda SHIELD sent you in here with."

 _I guess it's time to improvise_ , she thought. "Well, they wanted me to do whatever it takes to get in here." She smiled sweetly, opening her purse and pulling out the compact. She glanced at her reflection, outlined on the left by red dots.

Quinn was watching her curiously. "Get in here and...?"

The lights blinked out and the green indicators on the right flashed on. She ran her finger under one of her eyes, as if fixing her makeup. "Bat my eyes." She snapped the compact closed, setting it on the table. "Get you talking." She shrugged and moved closer to him.

Quinn narrowed his eyes at her. "No, you can’t be the only angle. SHIELD’s thorough enough to know about me and my exploits. It takes more than a pretty face to disarm me."

Her mind raced. Did she tell him she was there to find Dr. Hall? Would that help or hurt her case? She was going to have to chance it. The door flew open, saving her from having to reply at all, and a rather large guard stormed into the room. "Sir, we have a security breach."

Quinn shot up but Skye breathed a sigh of relief. At least she was done playing her role. "Oh, the timing on that was  _perfect_."

He scoffed and snatched her compact device off the table, opening it to see the green lights. He snapped it in two and threw the pieces on the table, striding over to the guard and feeling in his jacket pockets for something. He must have found it because he grabbed out a handgun and pointed it straight at her as she still sat on the overpriced sofa. "Up." He waved with the gun and she stood compliantly, glaring.

"Taking Dr. Hall was a mistake, Quinn. You should have known we would trace it back to you and find a way in here. I got into your system on my _cell phone._ You're not as untouchable as you think."

He sneered and rushed her, grabbing her by the throat and shoving her up against the wall between the windows. "Don’t you get it? SHIELD’s against everything you stand for. They’re Big Brother." He put the gun up against her head.

She swallowed down the panic and  tried to remember her training sessions with her SO.  _Big brother_. "Maybe. But they’re the nice Big Brother who stands up for his helpless little brother when he’s getting beat up because he ate a piece of cake that he wasn’t…"  _Nope._ That thought had gotten away from her. Quinn was staring at her like she was some sort of lunatic. "You know…you kidnapped a person!"

That struck a nerve. He released her and moved away, waving the gun. "I set him free! I saved him!" Skye massaged her neck where his hand had been. He stared over at her, a slight desperate gleam in his eye. "And I could’ve saved you."  


 *  *  *

Robbie was resisting the urge to pace. It hadn't been long since May had barged into his cell, but every minute was grating on his nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

The Rider was enjoying his disquiet.  _We could offer our assistance, clear up whatever mess they're in quickly._

_Oh yeah, I'm sure they'll just let you walk into a mission guns-blazing that they had to send a small, unassuming girl into. They think I'm a murderer and that we're the same._

He stood from the cot, striding to the door, debating pounding on it despite his protests. He thought better of it, walking back away, toward the other wall. As if reading his mind, the keypad beeped and door swung open to reveal Agent May and the other agent he had only seen through the screen before. He was pretty sure May had called her Simmons. They were muttering to each other, although it seemed like he was still only hearing part of the conversation.

"Southwest corner," the younger agent said.

"I can't do a damn thing from up here. We need all the help we can get." May actually looked angry.

"I must really be in trouble this time."

Agent May blatantly ignored him. He wondered if it was personal or if she was just like that. "If I drop you in a dangerous situation, can you help get our people out?"

 _Say yes._ "What?"

"You heard me, Reyes."

The small, British agent next to her flinched. "Perhaps this isn't our best plan. We still don't even know for certain if he  _is_ enhanced."

 _Tell them._ "If I help you, you let me go after?"

Agent May glared at him. "I can't guarantee it would be that easy, but it would make things go significantly better for you."

He could feel his gaze burning as he smirked at the two agents. "Then I guess we have a deal."  


 *  *  *

The ground felt like it was shifting beneath her feet. Skye was knocked to the ground closer to Quinn and the guard than she would have liked.  _The gravitonium_ , she thought. Coulson must not have made it in time.

Quinn hadn't seemed to register what was happening yet. He just looked angry. "Tell me what they’re doing!" The memory of his hand around her neck and gun to her head flashed through her mind and Skye panicked for a moment. He saw it and tried again, gentler. "Tell me what they’re doing. You have to talk. You have no other way out of this." They both stood and he laughed, pulling his weapon and leveling it at her again, emphasizing his point. "You’re expendable to SHIELD They sent you in here with nothing."

 _Not quite._ She disarmed him the way Ward had taught her, aiming the weapon at Quinn and his security. She cocked her head. "They taught me a few things." She smiled.

The guard eyed her. "Kid's got balls."

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks but yuck."

Quinn approached her cautiously, hands raised. "But do you have what it takes to pull the trigger?"

Skye pursed her lips, considering if she could do it. Her eyes widened. "Nope." She shook her head as she dropped the gun. There was a door not far from her and she made for it, leaping off the balcony into the pool below. She climbed out, hearing a helicopter take off. Of course Quinn was taking off before the gravitonium dragged the whole place down into the ocean.

"Coward," she muttered. Party-goers were dashing every which way, not sure what was causing the tremors and not really caring about why she was soaked. She caught a glance of two guards and turned to head back toward where she'd entered, only to run into another who grabbed her by the arms. "No, no, no, no! Please, please!" Everything in her was screaming that she had to get out of here. The other two guards were there now. She wasn't getting out of this.

A streak of flame appeared across her line of sight. The guards screamed, tossed into the pool. The man holding Skye released her, drawing his weapon and firing. At...  _Robbie?_ Pyrokinesis was obviously accurate. Whatever weapon he had in his hands was on fire and wreaking some serious havoc. He threw whatever it was and it hit the security guard, who went down almost soundlessly from the blow to his head.

Robbie walked up to her and she could see some kind of burning glow to his eyes. There was no warm brown to them now. She didn't care, she hugged him. He was a familiar face and she was scared and had been pretty sure only moments ago she wasn't getting out of this. He didn't hug her back, just stepped back with a hand on her shoulder to look her over. "You good?" She nodded.

A familiar voice shouted from behind her. "Skye!" Ward rushed up, taking in the sight of Reyes with clear suspicion. "Are you hurt?" She shook her head. Ward glared pointedly at Robbie. "Just follow my orders. I'll get us out of here." He grabbed her hand and led her out of scenes that were blurring together.

She didn't even ask if they'd saved Hall. She just wanted to get back to the Bus and shower - and train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this is NOT the last chapter for S1E3... Only one more.. I swear! 
> 
> I tried desperately to keep it all in character! Hope you all enjoy!


	6. The Asset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie has to decide what do to now that SHIELD knows who he is. But Skye has had her defining moment. She just has to figure out what that means for her.

* * *

 

Robbie supposed he shouldn't be surprised he was back in the containment cell after he saved the girl from whatever weird shit was going on at that mansion. The shifting of the ground under his feet hadn't been half as unsettling as Skye clinging to him. He might have even comforted her if he hadn't killed several security guards to get to her. He was doing his best not to sulk, but the dull roar of the Rider in the back of his mind was making it hard.

_You should be grateful they let you out to burn some souls before throwing us back in here._

_Grateful?!_

The remainder of the Rider's retort was drowned out by the familiar beeping of the lock. Robbie didn't even bother sitting up on the cot. Whoever it was could deal with his foul mood.

"Nice to see you're making yourself comfortable, Mr. Reyes. I apologize for our poor introduction before. I'm Agent Coulson." The agent who started this whole mess walked casually into the cell, leaning on the table across from his cot.

Robbie stared at the ceiling, deliberately not looking at him directly, but able to see him out of the corner of his eye. "Figured I might as well. I'm clearly going to be here for a while."

Agent Coulson put on a clueless face. "Why is that? We've got no more reason to keep you."

He bolted up, facing him. "What? Am I free to go?"

"Yeah, just as soon as you register with the Index. I reviewed the reports from May and Skye and agree with their assessment. You're not an active threat. You can go on the Index and just go home, so long as you agree not to use your abilities anymore."

The Rider hissed in his mind. Robbie knew that wasn't a possibility. He'd tried before and it never went well. "I can't agree to that. Your Agent May had to have explained the situation."

"You know, I vaguely remember her mentioning something about a Jekyll/Hyde/Faust sort of deal."

Robbie could tell he was playing some kind of angle and it was getting on his already raw nerves. "Listen, old man. If I don't settle scores for the Rider, I don't have any control. You want this thing running wild in LA? Because that's what you'll get."

Coulson grimaced. "'Old man'? Ouch. Obviously, that's not what we want. But we can't just let you go around killing non-enhanced individuals either, so you have to see my dilemma."

"I'd be willing to bet you walked in here with a third option." Robbie narrowed his gaze, doing his best to keep the Rider at bay. SHIELD always wanted something. Uncle Eli had been terrified of them and now here he was, learning the hard way why.

"Of course. I know you had a chat with Skye. She's one asset we've recruited who was a threat and now is working on becoming a valuable member of our team."

The Rider had gone quiet for a moment. Robbie didn't like this. "I know where this is going. Not sure if you noticed, but I'm not really a team player."

The agent raised his brows at him. "You sure? Because I heard you did a pretty good job rescuing some of my team on this last mission. Even came back in without a fight."

"So, what? It's join you or try to keep the Rider caged for as long as I can?"

 _We had a deal, Roberto. You owe me your life. You owe me vengeance._ It hissed in his mind, blurring his thoughts. At least this way, there would be someone pointing him in the right direction, less guilt over whose lives were taken, no hiding from his little brother. It could work.

"Basically, yeah. Or, I mean, we can always put you in containment if you think it's really going to be a problem. We've built prisons to withstand Asgardians and Hulks. I'm pretty sure we could find something to hold a vengeance demon."

Robbie froze. "How did you...?"

Agent Coulson smiled. "You wouldn't be the first Rider I worked with. But those are your options."

The Rider had already made up its mind.  _I will not be a prisoner to you or SHIELD. We are taking this offer, Roberto._

Robbie let out a steady stream of curses in Spanish. "I guess I'm sticking around."  


 *  *  *

The shower had washed away most of the panic that had flooded her from being caught, held against a wall by the throat, having the gun to her head, but there was still something there making her angry and driving her to the training area of the cargo hold. Her hands were taped the way Ward had shown her.  _Jab, cross._ Hitting the bag felt good. It didn't take away that hallow feeling in the pit of her stomach where all the panic had been, but it got out some of the rage.

There were no halfhearted punches this time. Every time she threw a cross, she imagined it was Ian Quinn's stupid face she was hitting, smiling and holding that gun. She heard her SO come down the stairs, figured he had some smart comment to make about her form or her break of protocol, but she wasn't really in the mood to hear it. She decided to take control of the conversation. "You and your brothers, where'd you grow up?"

Ward didn't seem surprised by her asking. "Massachusetts, mostly."

"A house?" It was a silly question. Of course a family with three sons lived in a house.

He seemed to think it was strange too. "You didn't?"

She stopped hitting the heavy bag and turned to face her SO. "One house. The Brody's." She paced away from the bag, fiddling with the tape on her hands. She grabbed a water bottle and took a drink. "I was 9. Sent me back to St. Agnes after a month. Said I wasn’t a good fit."

Ward, at least, didn't do the whole 'I'm so sorry' thing. His eyes said he understood. "Foster parents. Your first?"

She wished. "My third. I had heard it before, but," she searched for how to explain it, "this one was different."

He nodded as she looked away. Skye wasn't sure why she was telling him. Maybe it was that stupid empty-sick feeling in her stomach. But he still seemed to get it. "'Cause you wanted them to like you."

"Bad." The memories of that rejection were just as fresh as the ones from Quinn's estate. "I called her “mom” once, tried it out." She wandered back over to the heavy bag, checking her taped hands one last time. "Guess it wasn’t a good fit." She threw a few hits, but that empty feeling was growing, threatening her rage. "Hoping for something and losing it hurts more than never hoping for anything."

Her SO moved over to his place behind the heavy bag and braced it as she struck it. He waited for her to make eye contact with him. "We won’t turn our back."

There was something even more intense than usual in the way he said it and held her gaze. Skye could feel a little bit of a flush creep up her neck. She'd had her moment in Malta. He was right about how it changes things. "Doesn’t matter. I made my choice. I want this. Bad." She threw several harder hits and Ward nodded, tightening his grip on the bag. She cast him a sideways glance. "And I know there’s a truth serum."

He smirked. "Whatever you say, rookie."

Heavy, unfamiliar steps on the stairs drew both of their attention before she could respond. Robbie Reyes was coming down the staircase into the cargo hold - unsupervised. He muttered something in Spanish as he stepped on the training floor and took in the lab and ramp and everything else. He glanced over at Skye and her SO. "How fucking big  _is_ this place?"

Skye dropped out of her boxing stance in surprise as Ward straightened. "Big enough to confuse escaped captives when they somehow make it out of containment." He stepped away from the heavy bag, crossing his arms.

Skye rolled her eyes.  _Men._  Always too much ego for their own good. "It's good to see you, Robbie. Did Coulson get everything straightened out so you can go home?"

Reyes shifted almost awkwardly. "Yeah, not exactly. I guess part of being on the Index, or whatever it is, is not being allowed to use your abilities and, well, that's not really an option for me."

She wasn't sure what that meant. "So what does that mean? They can't just keep you here!"

Ward sighed. "Coulson gave you the option of going home and being put on the Index, or staying on with us, didn't he?"

Robbie lifted his chin, meeting her SO's stare with some contempt. "Sí, and we decided it was probably best for everyone if there was a positive outlet for my - what did you call them? Enhanced abilities." The two stared each other down for a moment before Skye was over it.

"So did anyone show you the rest of the Bus?" Robbie's attention snapped to her and she could feel Ward glaring at her. That was fine. Robbie had saved her life at Quinn's, so even if Ward didn't like him, she knew he could be trusted. He shook his head and she smiled, grabbing Reyes by the arm and leading him into the lab first. "Well,  _rookie_ , let me give you the grand tour."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINISHED S1E3! Only 15,000 words later....
> 
> I am going to go fill prompts now and will return to this in a little, but not to worry.. I'll be back. Promise! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed all the Bus Kids and their shenanigans. S1E4 with Robbie should be fun :)


	7. Telenovela

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has stolen $30mil worth in diamonds in a seemingly impossible way and Coulson has dragged the team into it, making it Robbie's first mission as a part of the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been getting some comments and requests to pick this fic back up so here! Have your first taste of Robbie on the team and his first mission.. or part of it...

* * *

 

"I hear you've accepted a position as one of our assets." May's voice was as even as ever. Never betraying a single emotion.

"It was that or the Index and, well, that's not really an option for someone like me." Robbie glanced up at her from his relaxed place on his bunk. It was nice, to have a space that wasn't a cage, even if it  _did_ come with evacuation protocols and a safety pamphlet.

"Well, I guess you'll be starting your training regimen, then. Tai Chi is at 0500. I'm your new SO. Welcome to SHIELD, Reyes. We'll evaluate your skills from there and build the rest of your training around the weak points. I'll see you in the morning."

And she was gone before he could even say a word, not that he really had a response other than to glower. It was only a little after 10 pm, but he figured he'd better get some sleep. He had a feeling he was going to get his ass kicked in the morning.

 

Robbie lounged on the hood of his Charger, literally and metaphorically nursing his wounds. He was right. May had kicked his ass, told him he needed 'technique'. And that was _after_ he felt like he'd pulled every muscle trying to keep up with her zen in tai chi. So he was sulking on his car. He'd insisted they pick it up and Coulson had more than happily obliged, saying something about Lola needing a friend. He watched Ward and Fitzsimmons examine some kind of blue .45 round. He assumed they were downsizing whatever gun they'd used to capture him. Fitz was clutching the actual weapon to himself, protecting it from Ward. Robbie had to chuckle. He'd do the same if he was working on delicate instrument and some reckless assassin wanted to get his hands on it.

"Yeah, w-we’re gonna have this new night-night pistol working in no time. Okay?" He turns away from Ward still holding the gun.

Ward turned to leave the lab, muttering, "Great. One thing, we’re not calling it that." Robbie had to suppress another laugh. At least he could agree with Ward on one thing. Night-night pistol was a  _terrible_ name for a gun that could take down the Ghost Rider. Steps on the spiral staircase grabbed both of their attention.

Coulson's voice echoed off the hangar walls. "Have you seen Skye?"

Ward stopped at the bottom of the staircase just long enough to answer. "Not since weapons training." He made his way up the stairs quickly.

Coulson glanced up. "Has she stopped saying “bang” when she pulls the trigger?"

"Mostly. Now, if she could just learn the difference between the safety release and the magazine release, we’ll be making real progress."

Robbie snickered at that, drawing Coulson's attention and a quirked eyebrow. He didn't need to ask. Robbie gestured to the SHIELD issued SUV at the far end of the hangar. The older agent nodded his thanks and Robbie just shrugged. It wasn't like he wasn't basically doing the same thing, only he was on the hood of his car, in plain sight. He'd had enough of being in a box on this Bus. If she wanted to hide in one, it was her business. He can hear the knock on the window and has to chuckle at her flippant greeting as she rolls the window down.

"What’s up, Phil?" She's practically hidden in the dark SUV, slouched in the back seat

"I’d prefer you not call me 'Phil'."

"Okay, you’re the boss…A.C. Just missing my van a little bit, taking a little me time." Robbie wondered what van she was talking about. He hadn't seen one in the hangar at all - just the two vintage beauties and SHIELD SUVs. She had her laptop with her and clicked away on keys while she spoke to Coulson. Of course she did. That was what made her an 'asset'.

"I want your help with something."

Robbie can hear Skye take a deep breath before answering. "Hit me with it."

"You ever rob a bank?"

"No." Her response was drawn out suspiciously, like this was a trap. He had to agree. It was a weird question.

"An armored car?"

"Nope."

"How about a casino?"

"Should I be offended?" Skye asked it playfully, but Robbie was slightly offended for her - and it wasn't even a conversation he was supposed to hear.

Coulson began his explanation. "Somebody’s stealing millions of dollars in diamonds. They’ve found a way to crack the security systems. I want you to figure out their exploit."

Robbie relaxed into the Charger. He was still a little peeved at the line of questioning, but at least it made sense. And Skye definitely seemed interested.

 * * *

Skye hated surveillance. She didn't like to be watched. She'd erased herself for a reason, and now she was standing in a hallway, surrounded by Swedish military and more surveillance than was ever  _possibly_ necessary. 

Coulson was prattling off the details of the case. " Yesterday, 55 men, all military, were hired by one of the largest gem brokers in the world. They dressed the men in identical outfits, gave each one a randomly assigned briefcase, and sent them along 25 different routes here in Stockholm."

May was shadowed by her new trainee, evaluating the carnage that was the train car. Coulson and Skye followed them onto it and it was pretty brutal. 

Someone handed AC a clipboard to sign. _Bureaucracy_. Skye had to roll her eyes, deciding to start her hacks and directing her attention to her phone _._ "No one knew which briefcase contained the diamonds, but they were still stolen." 

May was motioning to something and talking in a low voice to Robbie, something Skye couldn't hear. Probably teaching him, like Ward was always pointing something out to her. It was kind of endearing to see. 

"Why the Kabuki theater?" May directed the question to Coulson, who was standing in the center of the train car, like he was trying to imagine something. 

"They were afraid because somebody’s targeting diamonds, an armored car in Milan, a safe in Monte Carlo, and now this. Over $30 million total. Each theft occurred despite heavy security." He bent down to where the worst of the violence had happened and the man with the diamonds had lost a hand, as well as his briefcase. 

May walked over, glancing around at everything. "They sound like inside jobs."

Coulson stood again, still staring at where the body had been removed. "A lot of people share that opinion."

Skye looked up at all the cameras. No wires. That was a good sign for her. She glanced at Coulson. "You don't." She could feel his and Robbie's eyes on her, waiting for an explanation. She shrugged it off. "CCTV cameras catch any of the action?"

Coulson shook his head. "Fitz-Simmons is checking. The system went dark for an hour. They think it was hacked."

May moved to look at the cameras. "It was the same thieves each time?"

"Yes, but it was just one thief, a woman. And she did it all with her eyes closed." All three turned to stare at him. Robbie glowered, silent as he had been since the left the Bus, but Skye could see his wheels turning.

May asked a logical question, at least. "Eyewitnesses I.D. her?"

Coulson nodded once. "Black, athletic build, late 20s early 30s."

Skye hmm-ed to herself. This was seeming more and more like an enhanced individual. "So you asked how she could have cracked the system. I have a pitch but, it’s way outside the box."

Coulson smirked at her. "I live outside the box." Robbie rolled his eyes slightly but May saw and shot him a glare. 

Skye raised a brow in surprise to Coulson's declaration and continued slowly. "There are people in the world with superpowers, right?" She gestured toward Reyes. "What if this woman has ESP or something?"

May was quick to shut her down. "There are no credible studies that support precognition, telepathy or extrasensory perception."

Naturally. Skye resisted the urge to argue outright, instead adopting a playful and conspiratory tone. "Okay, so science says no. But, this woman knew impossible things. And why’d she close her eyes? That’s either random or totally important. Was she listening…or was she reading minds?"

Coulson and May stood staring at her in silence. Maybe the full debate would have been a better course of action. She shrunk back a bit, pulling her phone back out of her pocket, waving it in front of her. "I’m gonna go play with my phone now." She wandered to sit back by where Robbie had been leaning on the wall, away from where the  _adults_ were discussing the more important things. 

Robbie glanced down at her as she was clicking away at the small keys on her phone, realizing that, yup, the cameras were wireless for a reason. "ESP isn't entirely impossible, you know." 

Her attention snapped up, away from her phone. "Huh?"

Reyes smirked at her. "Just figured I'd let you know you're not as crazy as they made it seem."

Skye was forming something smart to reply with when Coulson was suddenly in front of them. "Any luck?"

She glared at Robbie for a moment before answering. "Yep, I’m getting full bars, which means if I was down here and 55 guys were in scary red masks, you know what I would do?" She flips her phone quickly in her hand, like she has been with weapons in her training, to show them the images on the screen. "Instagram."

May walked up behind AC, staring at the phone as he flicked through the photos. Skye stood, reaching for her phone. The adult agents glanced at her as a unit as Coulson handed it over. She walked out of the train car ahead of them. Robbie snickered behind her, following, before Coulson and May could bring up the rear. Mentally, she put a tally in the rookie column as they made their way back to the Bus. She turned to fix Reyes with a serious look. He raised a brow at her.

"We're going to have a long talk about ESP and other such _abilities_ later." He laughed, genuinely, and she smirked, glad to not be the only rookie. 

 * * *

Robbie hadn't been in Coulson's office before. It was full of old spy gadgets and some models of his old 'Vette. Clearly, the guy had a thing for vintage stuff. He was standing at the desk, tapping at a tablet, going through social media photos from the incident that Skye had helped him pull from every imaginable corner of the internet. Her skills were definitely impressive. 

"It's amazing. Every year this part of our job gets easier. Between Facebook, Instagram and Flickr, people are surveilling themselves." Coulson wasn't wrong.

Skye sat in one of the chairs with her feet up on the desk, her phone in her hand, like it always was. "With many filters to choose from. I could do this pretty well when I was hacking for The Rising Tide, but you guys tag and search in ways the rest of us never dreamed of."

His own SO was hovering next to Coulson, scanning through the photos probably faster than they were flicking by. "I can run facial recognition software on the photos, cross-reference them with our criminal databases." 

Coulson stopped on a photo. "You don't have to." He pulled it up and enlarged it, focusing on a single woman from the train. "That's the thief. Her name’s Akela Amador."

May eyed him warily. "You’re certain?"

"I should be, I trained her." There was a mixture of grief and pride on Coulson's face as he said it. 

Skye let her feet drop from the desk, setting her phone in her lap. Robbie let his gaze drift over the faces in the room and then to the photo on the tablet. It was like a fucking  _telenovela_ in this place. He wondered, not for the first time, what the Rider had gotten him into. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ..... more to come! I promise I'm going to try to keep up with writing once classes start. Maybe I'll be better since I'll be at my laptop more!
> 
> My psuedo has changed everywhere: tumblr: miranda-gilastorm, IG and twitter: m_gilastorm, WP: mirandagilastorm.wordpress


	8. Not the First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Bus is on Amador's tail, tracking her to Belarus. And Robbie has discovered his new favorite thing is annoying Grant Ward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long! My whole life has kind of fallen apart but I have all but successfully put it back together and have a week off from school so I plan to get at least a chapter of each of my WIPs done before the next term starts! Enjoy!

* * *

 

Skye struggled not to let Coulson's words elicit a dangerous emotion in her.  _I trained her_. Ward nodded and pulled up the SHIELD file, always the soldier, always true to his training. His eyes widened a bit as he took in Amador's credentials. Her SO nodded to the others in the room, as if excusing himself to go research on his own. Skye wondered a little if maybe he'd been turned on by what he'd seen.

But that wasn't where her mind needed to wander.  _I should, I trained her._ Coulson made his way around his desk and out into the main lounge of the Bus. May, Robbie, and Skye followed silently, waiting for his explanation. Any of them could read the file easy enough, but he knew something. That was clearly why they were on a case like this, not some spec ops team that specialized in high end robberies.

He made it to the spiral staircase before he started talking. "Akela Amador was a SHIELD agent. Seven years ago she led a raid on one of Vanchat’s Gulags. Everyone believed that she and the other two agents on the mission were killed. I had my doubts. So I sent in a second team, just in case." He wandered back into the lounge, past the three agents tailing him, to the bar. "They found a lot of carnage but couldn’t confirm that any of it was Amador, left the possibility open."

May eyed him with her impassive glare. "That’s why you chose this op, when you heard about the heists."

Everyone turned to look at May in surprise. Her voice was less controlled than her face, betraying her anger at his keeping secrets. Robbie looked especially shocked at her tone.

Coulson ducked. "There are only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible. Since you were on the Bus, I thought it had to be her." She continued glaring, so Skye figured his flattery wasn't going to get him out of whatever this was. He motioned with the glass still in his hand, and the team followed him into the Planning Room where Ward was already set up and waiting for them.

He had Amador's entire file picked apart across the screens. "Swedish customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish passport. She flew to Belarus, brought a train ticket to a town called Zloda. I’ve also put together a list of individuals who may fence that many diamonds." He flicked his list from the tabletop interface up to the wall of screens.  _Good god,_ she thought,  _the things the Rising Tide could do with equipment like this._ It wasn't the first time the thought crossed her mind. She caught Robbie's eyes flicking over to her from across the briefing room, where he stood next to May, and she pushed the thought as far to the back of her mind as she could. They still needed to have that talk about ESP and other powers. But she wasn't about to risk it.

Ward was still going on about the list. "There's been no contact or activity."

Coulson gave that smirk he had when he was about to tell a bad joke. "Maybe she’s saving them for a rainy day, buying something special. Let’s focus on finding Amador."

"I’ll let HQ know she’s alive so they can assist with the manhunt." May was already moving toward the cockpit, Robbie ready to follow silently in her wake.

"I'd like to put a hold on that." Everyone turned to give Coulson their own version of a questioning expression. "Until we know more. Contact Belarus authorities. Find us a place to park the Bus." He nodded to her SO. "Put together a list of inns, hotels and pensions near Zloda. There can’t be that many of them. We’ll find her."

Skye caught a look that passed between the two older agents before they went off on their way to follow orders. She stayed behind with Coulson. "I'm not so special after all." He turned to her, glancing over her shoulder. She turned and saw Robbie had stayed as well. Oh well. "I’m not your first protégée. Relax, I’m teasing. I know I’m not a protégée. Hell, I’m not even a real live SHIELD agent yet."

Coulson blanched. She saw it. Something about this Amador woman was eating at him. "You two couldn't be more different." He stared at her SHIELD ID photo still up on the wall of screens and interfaces. "Amador was smart, talented, fearless."

 _Ouch._ "Wow, there’s nothing in common." She could hear Robbie's jacket rustle as he shifted uncomfortably in the corner of the small room. This was probably the last kind of conversation he wanted to be stuck overhearing.

Coulson gave Skye a small smile. "Let me finish. She didn’t play well with others, found little value in teamwork." He nodded back up to the photo. "I thought I could instill those qualities in her, so I pushed her - maybe too hard." Guilt was written all over his face as he turned back to stare at Skye and, strangely, at Robbie over her shoulder.

She scoffed. "Don’t blame yourself because this chick went to the dark side. Whatever path she went down, whatever weird stuff she got into, it’s on her." She was done with this conversation. She walked out of the briefing room, letting him deal with his own misplaced guilt.

* * *

Robbie had felt the faint sparks of betrayal in just about everyone in the briefing room. If it hadn't been for May's crazy zen training, the Rider might have been raging in his head. It had radiated off of Ward as soon as he had seen Amador's photo, off of May when she realized Coulson was hiding things, Skye when she'd seen how they picked apart digital files, and Coulson met his eyes as he confessed his own guilt - like he knew what Robbie was feeling from the team.

He just reminded himself that it was this or some kind of cage. He and the Rider made a deal. And now they were stuck in this ridiculous van, in Belarus, and he wasn't sure if this team was about to implode or not.

"You look particularly broody today," Skye nudged his knee with her own.

Reyes glared at her without turning to face her. "That's not a word."

"And yet, I find it somehow describes you perfectly."

Simmons turned around to face them from her seat. "I don't how anyone could be brooding here, honestly. This is so exciting! I’ve dreamed of visiting Zloda since I was a schoolgirl." She grinned brilliantly.

Fitz shot her a strange look."Zloda, Belarus? A dream come true? Really?"

Simmons’ smile faltered a bit. "It’s the birthplace of Nobel physicist Zhores Alferov. I mean, technically he’s from Vitebsk, but that’s less than an hour from here and I’m a bit disappointed that you didn’t know that."

Her defensive tone snapped him out of whatever gloom he'd settled in. "Well, no, of course I know who that is. Father of heterostructure transistors, thank you very much." Everyone turned to give him a questioning glance, except Robbie. He didn't much care why Fitz didn't want to be out here. "We’re all well aware of that. I’m just a little bit preoccupied. Our first and only other time in the field wasn’t exactly a picnic, was it?"

Coulson leaned to look back at them from his place in the passenger seat. "You guys are only here to search for Amador electronically. You won’t even need to leave the van." Reyes rolled his eyes. The science twins had probably been reminded of that about twenty times since they left the Bus. But Fitz still gave himself a fist pump as Coulson turned back around in his seat.

May’s voice sounded over the radio. "Bus to short bus."

Ward responded immediately, "Go for short bus."

Coulson grimaced. "Next time, I’ll decide what we call ourselves, okay?"

Ward made a face, clearly not getting the reference or social stigma. Robbie added it to the list of reasons he wanted to punch him -  _for Gabe._

May was still talking through the comm. "HQ has requested a status update."

Robbie could feel the others in the van hold their breath. Coulson asked, "What'd you tell them."

"That we’re tracking a potential suspect, nothing more." Everyone released a collective sigh. Reyes gathered mom and dad didn't fight much.

Coulson nodded slightly, despite May not being able to see it. "I owe you one."

His SO's quip said she was starting to accept the situation. "More like three."

The van finally slowed to a stop by the side of some back road. Coulson turned in his seat to give them their orders. "If Amador is here, she’ll have to contact her buyer. Scan for cellphone transmissions, encrypted emails, anomalous broadcast signatures. Call us if you find anything that indicates her presence." Robbie assumed that was mostly for the other three. He was just here for muscle. 

Ward and Coulson both got out, Ward leaning in the open door briefly, glancing back at Skye. "Maintain radio silence unless you really need help."

Fitz glanced up from the case he was holding. "Well, what exactly defines needing help?!" The door slammed closed without an answer. Typical asshole Ward. Reyes really was starting to dislike him as much as the Rider did. 

Skye snapped open the laptop and a few devices on the console next to her and started tapping away. He couldn't help but watch her. It wasn't words on the screen, just a couple of black boxes of green text that he assumed was code of some sort - nothing that made any sense to him. 

Simmons was working on something in the row in front of them. Apparently the science twins had started on their assignments too. "There’s barely electricity in this town. Can’t be too hard to find our mystery woman."

Skye smirked, her eyes never leaving her screen, fingers still flying across the keys. "Unless she already knows we're here." Robbie was regretting ever mentioning anything to her now. She was like a K9 on a scent. 

Jemma, however, stopped what she was doing to turn and give them both an incredulous glare. "No, you’re not suggesting some sort of precognition or telepathy because-"

"I know, it doesn’t exist. And not long ago I would have dumped ESP in the 'aliens-and-demons-are-for-crazy-people' pile. But now-" She gestured to him. Whatever else Skye was about to say was cut off by a high chime from the laptop balanced on her knees. She stared at the nonsense on her screen intensely. "Found a server."

Robbie leaned over to see and there was finally something intelligible there - CONNECTED. Everyone else in the van went into high gear, typing at something, scanning something and Robbie just watched, focusing on his breathing like May had taught him. At least he didn't feel any murderous urges around these three, even if Skye  _was_ hiding something. 

Fitz snapped at them, trying to get their attention. "There's a broadcast. At least I think that's what it is."

Skye set her laptop aside and slid over Robbie to go see what Fitzsimmons had found. Robbie Reyes was  _not_ blushing about having that idealistic hactivist in his lap for a brief second. He got up to see what the fuss was all about. 

"Doesn't look like anything exciting to me, just some footage of driving down the street." The other three agreed with him. 

Simmons looked around briefly and a slight panicked expression passed on her face. Skye raised a brow at her. "What's up?"

"What do we do if we have to use the bathroom?"

Robbie laughed. "Call Ward. Sounds like a question for your SO." A question that would annoy him to no end, and nothing would please Robbie more than annoying Grant Ward. 

* * *

Skye held up the water bottle, her phone to her ear with her very annoyed SO on the other end. "Did you never learn the thing where boy parts and girl parts are different, and our parts aren’t penises?"

Robbie was practically grinning from where he'd spread out on the bench they'd been sharing earlier and somehow she felt like she'd been set up in his suggestion to call Ward. Fitzsimmons were snickering, but Fitz was waving at her, reminding her about the snacks.

Ward was being his usual terminator-mission-comes-first self. "Agent Coulson and I are trying to find a dangerous criminal. If there’s nothing else pressing-"

She rolled her eyes. "Actually, wait one sec. Fitz was wondering if you packed any snacks." 

Fitz shouted at her ear. "Cause I’m feeling a bit peckish."

The phone clicked off. She pulled it away and stared at it. "He hung up." Robbie laughed - actually laughed - and she was tempted to throw the device at him. Yeah, that was  _definitely_ a set up. She did throw the water bottle at him, landing a pretty solid hit. 

"Hey, cool it, chica! Not my fault he's such a hardass!" Skye didn't grace him with a response, just a toss of her hair to cover the fact she was trying hard not to smile. Stupid Reyes was going to get her stuck doing pull ups for a full week, but it might have been amusing. She set to putting everything back in the cooler she'd dug the bottle out of when static caught her attention.

Fitz was fiddling with the broadcast she'd found, but something was interfering with it. He muttered some kind of curse. "I can’t stabilize it. There’s an encrypted local signal competing."

Skye tossed herself back on the bench, shoving Robbie over and ignoring his grunts of protest. She grabbed her laptop from where it had been sitting, streaming the connection to the server to the rest of their equipment. "Mirror it over. I have a couple of Rising Tide exploits that might work."

Fitz hit some keys at his work station and the stream appeared on Skye's screen. The small computer beeped like an astro-droid with each of her keystrokes as she typed into different command prompt boxes, working her own kind of science magic. She mumbled to herself, "One last thing..." Just a few more prompts and a quick enter and the feed cleared up.

Skye beamed up at them all, who were apparently crowding around her as she worked. The feed was still just of a street, a couple of bushes along a dirt road. "Ta-da! And you're welcome."

Fitzsimmons stared at the images on their own screens, making those faces that they made when trying to figure something out that made no sense. Robbie just shook his head. Whatever. She was proud of herself.  _This_ was why she was here. 

Reyes stared past her at the stream. "Russian TV is boring." Something about how casually he disregarded her work annoyed her. She rolled her eyes at him and settled into watching the 'boring' stream, even if it was with his grumpy commentary next to her. 

The feed continued moving past the bushes and now showed a parked white van. Fitz sat up straight. Skye and Robbie both eyed him curiously. "That looks a bit like our van."

Looking again at the stream, everyone could see he was right. In fact, it looked like where they were parked. Reyes was standing up, like he was getting ready for a fight. Then the feed shifted and it was like they were see an x-ray of four skeletons in a van. 

Skye looked over at Fitzsimmons. "What are we looking at?"

Fitz stood slowly, joining Robbie and waving his hand. A skeleton on the x-ray feed mimicked his movements. "Us."

The image started rushing toward the van and Reyes grabbed the other three to push them away from the impact as the van was rocked by the hit, Robbie taking the brunt of it. Skye reached for him, worried for a moment before she realized he would heal. He was making the rational choice.  _Of course_. 

Skye's brain started working again. "Let's get out of here!" She grabbed the keys and was heading for the driver's seat only to have them snatched from her hand.

"No way, chica. I'm driving." Robbie's eyes were glowing and she was not about to argue.

She followed him, throwing herself in the passenger seat and turning to Fitzsimmons, who were crouched in the safest place they could find on the floor. "Call Coulson and get the gun!"

Their van was moving as Robbie pealed out and away so they could see the other white van that was backing up to ram into them again. Jemma placed the gun in Skye's hand and she did her best to remember her training with Ward. 

Robbie had them turned around and Skye facing the driver of the van, ready to shoot and head back to the Bus. "It's her." Akela Amador was driving the van. Skye glanced down at the gun, leveled it at the other van, reminding herself, "Safety off," hitting a switch and holding her breath as the magazine dropped into her lap. She tossed an embarrassed look at Robbie with a small "Bang?"

Reyes didn't even react. He just gunned it. If Amador had wanted to chase them, she didn't show it. They made it to the Bus, with an angry May waiting. Skye let out a breath. Robbie released his tight grip on the steering wheel and glanced over at her. "'Bang'? Really?"

She let her head hit the seat as she tossed it back. "Oh my god. Shut up, Reyes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm not 100% on board with the characterization here, but I just know that Robbie and Ward would hate each other, even with the Rider under control. Ward is such a dick all the time and it would just rub Robbie the wrong way. 
> 
> Anyways. Here is where we start diverging a bit! Robbie being there changed the story... Because OBVIOUSLY he would have jumped in the driver's seat, which eliminates the original problem for Skye of her being too short and not having time to adjust the seat before they get hit again. So yeah. They get away and don't have to be rescued by Coulson and Ward. BUT she still can't fire a gun... so there's that. 
> 
> So yes. Welcome to my alternate timeline. It's only going to get more fun from here.


	9. Tapping the Feed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions are running high as May and Coulson's opinions on what to do with Amador differ. When May leaves with Reyes to confront her, the rest of the team rushes to prevent a potential innocent from meeting the Ghost Rider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for delays! Life sucks sometimes but I'm doing my best to get out of my funk and do things that I love again!! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

 

Robbie waited along the railing with his SO, watching as Ward and Coulson made their way back to the waiting crew.

"That was some quick thinking out there, Reyes." May's eyes never left the movements in the loading bay below, but there was a hint of pride in her tone.

He shrugged. "All I did was drive. It was their science-ing that gave us the heads-up."

She nodded. "Still, you got them out of there and uninjured. If you hadn't been there, or hadn't jumped in, things could have been worse. Own your accomplishments. They'll be all you have on the days when things go bad." Something dark flashed in her mind, the Rider could taste her guilt as she walked off to lecture Coulson about his leniency on a former agent.

Skye walked up to where he was leaning. "I think that's the nicest thing I've ever heard her say to anyone. And to think she was worried about our mission to meet you."

Robbie raised a brow at her. "What do you mean?"

"Apparently May doesn't do 'first contact' missions. She was not thrilled when we were assigned as your meet and greet."

"Glad to know I was so welcome around here." He smirked at her, teasing.

She floundered a bit, trying to find a way backtrack before she caught sight of his smile. "Oh, yeah, we were totally waiting for you to grace us with your presence."

His reply died on his lips as Ward, May, and Coulson made their way up the steps.

Ward was being his same pretentious self. "Sir, Amador attacked you and your people. Whatever regard you hold for her isn’t reciprocated." The three of them walked right past him and Skye.

She rolled her eyes and Robbie couldn't help but snort at that. The two agents-in-training followed the other three, hearing Ward still complaining on their way to the control room.

"She just kicked us in the teeth."

Coulson, at least, didn't seem to be paying much mind to Skye's SO's bruised ego. "How's the team?"

May went to answer, but Ward answered in her stead. Skye and Robbie glanced at each other in shock. "Rattled, no broken bones. We’re lucky she just knocked the van the once so she could get away. Probably take a while for our folks to refocus."

"Actually, our trainees got themselves away, so give them the credit they deserve. Reyes got them out of there before any real damage could be done." May glowered at Ward, who retreated behind a soldier's stance.

Skye cleared her throat at the entrance, waving her tablet. "I think I can recover the data signature of that encrypted broadcast. I don’t understand it yet, but that’s how she was watching us. Give me an hour. Maybe we can start watching back."

Everyone in the room eyed her with approval. Robbie was glad to see Ward looked shocked. Skye turned to head to the lab, patting him on the shoulder as she left. It was almost an affectionate gesture and Reyes wasn't sure what to do with that. It was likely just encouragement. She seemed to be starting to see him as a fellow agent, maybe even as a friend. He could barely remember the last time he had a genuine friend.

* * *

Skye banged her head on the lab table. The feed  _should_ be working. It was the right signal, the equipment was working on all ends, everything was connected - she checked. Simmons patted her head reassuringly.

Skye tapped away at the computer again. "Something’s wrong. It’s the same feed that was watching us in the van. Uh, put it on the big monitor."

Footsteps from the entrance drew her attention.  _Of course_. She would have an audience for her epic failure. Ward and Coulson walked in, followed by May and Robbie. The older agents stayed back, watching the static feed.

Robbie walked up to her work station, where Fitzsimmons were hovering, trying to help. At least she knew  _he_ wasn't going to offer suggestions on what was wrong.

"Maybe the lens broke when the van rammed us." Simmons walked up to the monitor, eyeing the static of the feed.

"I hope she broke more than that." Skye muttered, typing more code into the computer, trying one last thing to break through whatever encryption was keeping her from viewing the full feed.

Robbie shook his head at her comment, the only one close enough to hear it. "You've got this, chica. Safety off, remember?"

She shot him a glare, but typed another line in, exclaiming when the static became a blurry screen of white mist.

"Told you." Reyes nudged her shoulder with his elbow. Skye furrowed her brow, reading over the lines of encryption she'd worked through to see why it still wasn't clear. Then a hand came across the screen, clearing mist from the image, clearing it.

Coulson stepped up to the monitor. "It’s a mirror. Are we recording this?"

"Uh," Skye fiddled with the computer, tapping a few keys and grabbing her tablet, moving toward the monitor,  "we are now."

The image cleared more and they could see Amador in the mirror, in a towel as if she'd just stepped out of the shower.

Fitz shifted uncomfortably. "Whoa.."

AC leaned forward, examining the full picture for any possible hidden detail. "How are we seeing this? Where’s the camera?"

The camera feed shifted downward toward a box filled with what appeared to be eyeglass screwdrivers. Amador lifted one of the screwdrivers, looking in the mirror and pulling down the skin under one of her eyes. She proceeded to put it in her eye. Fitz squeezed his eyes shut, making some kind of squeamish sound, and looking away, the rest of the team looked just as disturbed, with the exceptions of May and Reyes, _of course_.

May leaned back against a table. "It’s her eye, she’s the camera."

Skye watched, fascinated, and Akela closed her eyes, shifting the feed to x-ray vision. "Well, there goes my psychic theory." Robbie coughed from behind her, and she thought maybe it was the hint of a laugh.

Fitzsimmons were entranced at the new image before them. The 'eye' was some kind of implant that they could see through the x-ray. "It switches to backscatter when she closes her eyes." Fitz was in full science mode.

She turned to her SO. He'd barely even looked at her since the whole incident with the van. She smirked at him. "You’re a robot, can you do that?"

He just closed his eyes in frustration, and there was a louder cough from Reyes back at her computer station. She felt rather pleased with herself.

Ward turned to Fitzsimmons. "Who has tech like this?"

They shook their heads in unision in the cute way they always did. "We don't." Fitz answered, ever the engineer, gaining the attention of the rest of the room. "Not like this, that’s small and internal. That’s at least a decade ahead of anything I’ve seen."

He examined the x-ray image of the implant again as Amador was once again inserting a screwdriver into it, making adjustments. "Though now that I’ve seen it I could maybe approximate it. The backscatter x-ray, a microtransceiver that somehow doesn’t fry her brain, and internal power source –"

Simmons cut in, "- All miniaturized honestly, it’s…

Fitz continued, "That’s genius."

Simmons nodded. "Genius."

The feed shifted back to normal, drawing the team's attention back to the monitor. Coulson watched it with a strange look on his face and Skye was reminded again of their talk about how responsible he felt for Amador. "We have to bring her in."

May stepped up. "We have to take her out, she's a weapon."

Tension in the room was palpable and Skye glanced over at Robbie, who raised a brow at her, obviously thinking back to their conversation about that first contact mission. Skye pursed her lips, shrugging slightly. She glanced over at her SO, but he was watching May intently, nodding in agreement. It was all she could do not to scoff. What was  _wrong_ with him today?

May shook her head. "I'll call HQ, see if we can bring in a task force to help us." She turned to leave just as soon as she'd spoke, but Coulson wasn't giving up.

"Our team can handle this."

May wheeled around, striding up close to AC, causing tensions to rise even higher in the room. Skye suddenly wished she were standing next to Robbie so she could at least feel like she had backup if things went south.  _Since when is Reyes my backup?_

"I get it. You feel responsible, maybe you pushed her too hard." She'd hit a nerve, and Coulson's jaw twitched a bit. "But she tried to kill four junior members of our team."

Coulson shook his head. "She's trained, she's just as capable as you. If she wanted us dead, we'd be dead."

May sighed. "We got lucky. Our trainees are good. You want to risk our lives - or worse, theirs - again?" She gestured around the room.

Skye shifted. She wasn't particularly comfortable being talked about while standing in the room. A quick glance around the room told her the other 'junior members of the team' weren't either.

AC lowered his voice. "You told me you were ready for combat, that you had my back."

"Don't ever doubt it. But you are defending this girl at the expense of our team." May bristled at the threat to her honor. 

"Because we're protecting our own."

Skye's own SO turned to give his own opinion. "With all due respect, sir, she's not one of our own." Skye had to roll her eyes, but Coulson and May broke their tense glare.

Motion from the feed caught her attention. "Guys."

Everyone turned back to the screen to see Amador writing on a piece of paper 'CAN I SLEEP?'

Simmons immediately turned to the rest of the team, "Why does she have to ask for permission?"

As they all watched, words were typed across the lower third of the feed. 'STAND BY'

Coulson stepped up to the monitor. "She’s not being watched, she’s being controlled. We have to find her. We’ll take shifts watching the feed." Skye glanced over at May to see a defeated droop cross her shoulders. "Sooner or later she’ll look at something that will clue us into her location."

May pulled out one of the seats at a lab table. "I’ll take the first watch."

Coulson nodded to her and the majority of the team filed out. 

Skye rushed after him, following to his office. After May and Ward's attitudes, she felt like he should know that  _someone_ was in his corner, even if it was just one of the 'junior members of the team'. She knocked on the open door.

He motioned from where he was seating himself behind his desk.

She glanced around the room. "It's a pretty weird day, huh? It was like we were a van shaped piñata, and then joy-riding with the Ghost Rider..

A grimace passed over AC's face. "That shouldn't have happened."

"It’s okay. It wasn’t nearly as terrible as watching mom and dad fight downstairs."

"That shouldn't have happened either." He blanched. "You regret coming along?"

Skye snickered. "It was pretty impulsive, even for me. I still don’t know much about you," she paced around the office, eyeing the memorabilia, "except you value  _really_ old stuff." Coulson swiveled in chair to eye his collection. 

She continued. "And you value me. First person to do that in a long time. So I happen to believe you’re an excellent judge of character." Coulson simply stared at her with that simple puppy face. "If you think this woman deserves a second chance, we should give it to her, even though if it wasn't for Robbie, she would have killed me and I kind of hate her guts." 

Skye slowly backed her way out of the office, tossing her long curls as Coulson smiled.

* * *

Robbie decided to bury himself under the hood of his Charger until it was his shift to watch the feed, his leather jacket tossed in the front seat while he checked over all Lucy's systems, changing her fluids even though she hadn't even been out since the last time he did this. It passed the time.

"Looks like you're going to need some new clothes." Ward's obnoxious voice rang out from behind him, likely on his way to go show off and punch something while not wearing a shirt. 

Robbie didn't even bother removing himself from the innards of his car. "What makes you say that?"

"The tears in the back of the shirt you're wearing? Looks like something got you good."

He straightened, tugging the back hem of his shirt over so he could see at least part of the back. "Must have happened when I covered the science twins and Skye as we were getting rammed in the van." He shrugged. "I forgot not everything heals the same."

The agent glared at him. "You covered them?"

"Yeah, shielded them from the impact? I heal, they don't, you know. Made sense in the moment. Guess my shirt would disagree." Reyes turned back to his car, smirking, knowing Ward's ego was bristling all the more. 

Steps descending the spiral staircase drew both of their attention and Skye bounced over to the two of them. "Boys. I hope you're playing nice." She gave her SO a significant look and Robbie felt no need to defend him.

He wiped his hands on one of his rags for working on Lucy. "Oh you know, we were just talking about how interesting it is that my healing ability only extending to things I was wearing the night of my accident - like my jacket - but not shirts like this one." He turned to show her the marks left by the damage from the van incident. 

Skye ran her hand over his back and Robbie fought down the urge to shiver at the familiar contact. "So cool." She reached into his front seat and grabbed his jacket, lifting it up to confirm that there were no marks, only to run her hand over his back again. 

Robbie swallowed hard. "Is your curiosity satisfied, chica?" He could feel the blush starting to creep up his neck and the last thing he needed was her SO hovering close enough to see it. 

She grinned at him, tossing his jacket back to him. "Not even close. But you saved our lives twice today, so I guess I can let you spend time with your one true love." She gestured to his car. "But don't think for one second we're not having that talk about your powers and other potential powers that you've hinted at." She winked and stalked off toward the training facility, Ward trailing after her, his hand resting on her back. 

Both the Rider and Reyes burned at the sight of that. Something had been off about Ward for this whole mission. Now a desire to protect Skye from him was driving them to a mutual goal of wanting to find out what he was up to.

Robbie's phone chimed just as he was about to let the Rider get a good read on Ward. He pulled out the SHIELD issued device, only to see a text from his own SO demanding he meet her in the lab immediately. 

Reyes sighed. That could only mean one thing. She knew where Amador was and they were going off book to find her before Coulson or any of the others could stop them. 

 

May and Reyes waited in the hotel room silently while Amador slept. If he didn't know better, Robbie honestly would have thought she was dead, for all the movements she made. 

Until, as if on a timer, her eyes flew open and she sat up, facing away from them. May spoke quietly. "Whoever’s monitoring you, do they have audio?"

Amador didn't seem surprised at all to have someone in her room. "No. But they’ll use facial recognition to determine you’re SHIELD agents."

Robbie shrugged, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "I'm not, but still."

May glared at him. "So, I don’t have to introduce myself."

The former agent sighed. "Did Coulson send you?"

"No. He feels sorry for you. I don’t. I’ll bring you in to SHIELD, you’ll get a fair trial, and no one else gets hurt." May stepped closer to Amador, as if readying for the inevitable fight.

The woman on the bed scoffed. "You have no idea, do you?"

Robbie spoke up. "We know that you receive orders."

She still kept her gaze forward. "Then you know that once they see you, only one of us gets to walk out of here. They built in a fail-safe," finally looking up at May, "Either I kill you, or they kill me."

May shook her head almost sadly. "You should have stayed in bed."

Before Robbie could even blink, Amador was moving with a gun pointed at his SO, which May easily kicked out of her grasp. Coulson wasn't lying when he'd said the two were just as trained as the other. May knocked him flat on his ass every chance she got, and here she was evenly matched with this former agent. He felt useless, like he was just there to observe how badass his SO was, until the light was smashed and he knew Amador could see with her backscatter, leaving May in the literal dark. 

Robbie grabbed a hanging lamp chain from the corner of the room, igniting it and allowing the Rider to take over, lighting up the room. The chain wrapped around Amador and she grunted in pain, her eyes focusing on his flaming skull, whoever was watching, likely unsure what to do with the sight in front of them. 

The door behind them flew open and Coulson burst into the room, followed by Skye and Ward. Taking stock of the situation, Coulson fired immediately, allowing Amador to sink to the floor. Reyes released her, feeling his own flesh stretch back over his face, burning and itching. 

Coulson glared at the both of them and wordlessly motioned for Ward to take the unconscious Amador back to the Bus. Skye raised a brow in the 'you know how he is' kind of way, and followed them out, leaving May and Robbie to do the walk of shame in the rear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, as you can see, I'm starting to set up a good bit of the plot divergence... aaannnddd the QuakeRider.... shamelessly. I hope it feels natural. I'm not sure if romance ever feels natural when I write it. Please critique if it doesn't!

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @brittinnistudio331pro and feel free to send me your ideas! And don't think I've forgotten those of you who already have given ideas.. I'm not too proud to use them :) I promise I'll try to update regularly! 
> 
> Enjoy!


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